hackGODDESS
by SmkViper
Summary: Ever wonder what was going on in the real world during the .hack series? The OMG cast work with the .hack characters to solve the mystery of The World
1. hackGODDESS

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 1: .hackGODDESS  
  
"Hmm…this month's budget is going to be closer then I thought," thought Keiichi as he attempted to balance his checkbook. He was lying on his chest on the floor, receipts spread out in front of him, wearing the jeans and sweatshirt that he commonly wore during the colder months of the year. Keiichi was rather short, with spiky brown hair and brown eyes.  
  
"Don't worry honey; I sense some good fortune coming our way soon!" Belldandy replied in her typical cheerful manner as she wiped down the table in preparation for laying out the lunch she had prepared. As usual, she could sense his worry and knew just how to alleviate it.  
  
Keiichi smiled as he remembered a similar incident almost 8 years ago when he was purchasing new furniture for their temple home right after moving in. In that case, his sister Megumi had showed up just a few minutes later with enough money to last him the next month, which he needed more then ever after finding out that Megumi had decided to live with him while she was attending college.  
  
8 years ago, a lot has happened since then. Back then I couldn't get a girlfriend to save my life, and now I'm married to the most beautiful goddess in the entire world! Keiichi thought to himself as he looked lovingly back at Belldandy. She was roughly the same height as him, with long blonde hair tied back into a pony-tail hanging down to her waist, and bright blue eyes that lit up the room when she smiled. She had a vertically elongated blue diamond on her forehead and a small blue triangle under each eye, identifying her as a goddess.  
  
Keiichi reached over and picked up the cup of hot tea he had been sipping all morning. He raised it to his mouth and tipped the cup, but instead of warm tea, a large block of frozen tea bumped against his nose. With a sigh, he asked Belldandy to heat the tea back up for him. She giggled and left for the kitchen when a 2-year old girl toddled into the room. She had blue eyes and black hair, currently tied back into two little pony-tails. On her forehead was an elongated blue diamond, identical to the one on Belldandy's forehead.  
  
"Daddy!" she said as she ran over to Keiichi and gave him a hug.  
  
"Hey Shinobu, you haven't been messing with daddy's tea again have you?"  
  
"I didn't do anything!" She insisted with a pout.  
  
"I'm sure you didn't, but daddy has to work on his checkbook, why don't you go find Aunt Skuld and see if she'll play with you, ok?"  
  
"OK!" she replied and ran out of the room to go look for her Aunt.  
  
Belldandy came back in the room and handed the reheated tea back to Keiichi.  
  
"Thanks Bell, do goddess children usually show powers this early?"  
  
"Well, they can show some affinity for their natural element, though they don't usually know what they are doing," Belldandy replied. "My parents used to tease me about how I would inadvertently blow all of my father's paperwork around the house, and usually just when he was working on a difficult project," she said with a grin.  
  
"Well then I should be glad that Shinobu's element is only ice and not something more destructive. I don't think I would have wanted to see Urd's first fire spell!"  
  
"I heard that!" said Urd as she walked into the room. She was two or three inches taller then her younger sister Belldandy but had long silver hair, tanned skin, and a blue triangle marking on her forehead and one under each eye. "And you'd best keep your mouth shut if you don't want to have a hot foot, goddess-style!" she retorted.  
  
"Daddy! I can't find Auntie anywhere!" said Shinobu as she ran back into the room.  
  
"Do either of you know where Skuld is?" asked Keiichi, looking at Belldandy and Urd.  
  
"She mentioned something about a computer sale and took off on Banpei about an hour ago," replied Belldandy. "I hope she's back in time for lunch."  
  
"Speaking of lunch, do you need any help in there Bell?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Nope! You just finish your paperwork. Lunch will be ready in another 30 minutes or so," Belldandy replied with a smile as she walked back to the kitchen.  
  
"Urd? Would you mind looking after Shinobu until lunch? I really need to get this done."  
  
"Sure K, come 'ere you little brat!" she said as she scoped up the little girl and headed outside. A minute later Keiichi could hear loud squealing and a few small thunderbolts outside as Urd and Shinobu chased each other around the temple yard.  
  
A few minutes later the front door slammed and Megumi walked into the room.  
  
"Hey bro! Guess what? The new Final Fantasy movie comes out in theatres next week. Hiroshi and I were going to go catch it next Saturday; you guys want to come along?"  
  
"Sorry Meg, I'm going to be cutting it close in terms of my budget this month, I'm afraid I can't afford it right now."  
  
"Oh! That reminds me!" Megumi pulled an envelope out from under her coat. "Here, this is what I owe you for those motorcycle parts last week."  
  
"Hey thanks Megumi, maybe we can go with you guys next weekend. I'll talk it over with everyone here and I'll call you ok?"  
  
"Ok, I've got to get back home so I'll see you later!" Megumi called as she headed out the front door.  
  
"I'm saved!" Keiichi thought to himself. "I could have used the money last week when she 'borrowed' those parts, but at least we can do something fun before the month is out, and then there is our marriage anniversary next month. I'm going to have to start saving for that now if I want to get Bell something nice…"  
  
Just then there was a loud crash outside.  
  
"Urd! Why don't you watch where you're going!"  
  
"Why don't you Skuld! You shouldn't have had your nose stuck in that shoujo manga!"  
  
"SKULD BOMB AWAY!"  
  
"URD LIGHNING STRIKE!"  
  
There was a loud explosion, followed by a crash of thunder outside. Shinobu came running inside, crying and ran over to Belldandy, hugging her legs.  
  
"I'll take care of it Bell, why don't you try to calm down little Shinobu."  
  
"Will you guys cut it out!" Keiichi yelled. "You just scared Shinobu with your childish fighting!"  
  
"Oops, sorry about that Keiichi," replied Urd with a sheepish grin on her face. She looked down at herself, now covered in dirt and debris. "I guess I better go clean myself up."  
  
"I'm sorry Keiichi, but it's all my big sister's fault! She should have been looking where she was going!" insisted Skuld.  
  
Keiichi tried to stifle a laugh. Skuld's black hair was all frazzled from the lighting strike and her clothes were dirty and scratched up from the results of her bomb. Skuld was a little shorter then he was with long black hair and brown eyes. She had a blue teardrop shaped marking on her forehead and under each eye. But the cute little pout on her face was too much and Keiichi had to go back inside to keep from laughing out loud at her comical expression.  
  
"Humph!" Skuld said as she picked up her manga and the computer equipment that had gotten strewn about in the little fight.  
  
"You better clean yourself up Skuld, Belldandy will have lunch ready in a few minutes," Keiichi told her.  
  
Skuld walked past him wordlessly, nose stuck up in the air.  
  
"She my be 22 years old, but she still acts so much like a kid sometimes," Keiichi muttered under his breath.  
  
"I AM NOT A KID!" retorted Skuld as she stuck her tongue out at him before rounding the corner into the hallway.  
  
"Would you help me carry the food out to the dining room Keiichi?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Sure Bell!" He picked up a couple of the dishes that she had prepared for lunch and followed her into the dining room. "Smells great as always!" Keiichi remarked.  
  
"Thanks K," she said with a grateful smile. "I'll set Shinobu up here if you'll go tell Urd and Skuld that lunch is ready."  
  
Keiichi walked down the hallway and knocked on the girl's bedroom door. "Lunch is ready!" he called through the closed door.  
  
"Be there in a minute!" replied Urd.  
  
"I'm coming," said Skuld as she slipped out of the "Skuld Labs" room and headed for the dining room.  
  
A few minutes later they were all seated around the table enjoying the lunch Belldandy had prepared for them. Shinobu, as usual, was playing with her food instead of eating it.  
  
"How was your shopping trip Skuld?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"It was great! I picked up some more memory for Banpei and components for my new project. I saw this game called 'The World' which looked interesting, so I picked it up and I'm working on a computer that will be able to play it."  
  
"A computer game? Really? Can I play it? Please…" pleaded Urd.  
  
"It's going to be another day or two until the computer is ready sis, and even then, I bought it so I'm going to play it first!"  
  
"Why you little!" Urd replied, raising her hand to call another lighting bolt.  
  
"You just try it!" retorted Skuld, reaching inside her dress for another Skuld bomb.  
  
"Stop right now you two!" shouted Belldandy. "I don't want you causing another commotion and scaring Shinobu again!"  
  
"Sorry," they both replied and went back to eating their lunch, glaring at each other between bites.  
  
"So, um…Skuld, what is this game you bought?" asked Keiichi, attempting to relieve some of the tension.  
  
"Well, you remember the 'Pluto's Kiss' incident about 2 and a half years ago?"  
  
"Yeah," Keiichi replied, shuddering at the memory of the computer virus that shutdown the entire net and caused a world-wide panic.  
  
"Well, 'The World' is the first online computer game made since that incident. It's an online role playing game set in a fantasy world where you can meet and play with thousands of other people! It just came out last December and is already the hottest selling game in history. I figured we could have some fun playing it as a family, and at least there Urd can let off some steam without hurting anyone."  
  
Urd glared at her little sister with that comment and was about to reply when Belldandy stopped her with a quick look.  
  
"That sounds like fun! When can we start playing it Skuld?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Well, I could have a computer ready tomorrow, but I wanted come up with something better then the primitive controller and headset the game comes with so I'll need another day or two to finish it off. I'm such a genius!" Skuld said, with stars in her eyes.  
  
After lunch Skuld hurried back to her lab to work on "Mr. Immersion" as she called it and Urd floated off to her room to watch some TV, followed closely by Shinobu, who was tugging on her dress, wanting Urd to pick her up. Keiichi stayed and helped Belldandy clean up the dishes then went back to his paper work.  
  
That night, as he and Belldandy got ready for bed, he asked her where Shinobu was, since she usually slept with them in their room.  
  
"Oh, she wanted to sleep with Urd and Skuld tonight, so I told her it was alright."  
  
Keiichi chuckled at the thought of those two being kept awake by Shinobu as she would usually crawl all over him and Belldandy before suddenly falling asleep.  
  
"Well then, this will be a quiet night for the two of us," he said with a grin as he and Belldandy crawled into bed together. "Goodnight Bell."  
  
"Night Keiichi, my love."  
  
Two days later…  
  
"Daddy! Mommy! Wake up! I'm hungry!"  
  
Keiichi groaned as he felt a little hand slapping him gently in the face. "Not now Bell, I'm tired"  
  
"Daddy! Please get me some breakfast!"  
  
"Hmmm…? Oh, good morning Shinobu." Keiichi stretched out on his futon, trying to wake up enough to get out of bed. "Shhh, Shinobu, let mommy sleep. Let's go find something to eat. Now be quiet and don't wake up mommy, OK?"  
  
"OK!" Shinobu replied with enthusiasm, and then covered her mouth as she realized how loud she was. She then ran out to the hallway. "Daddy! Come on!" she whispered insistently.  
  
"I'm coming Shinobu," he whispered back. He carefully got out of bed, coving up Belldandy and quietly left the room shutting the door behind him. He noticed Belldandy smiling slightly and realized she wasn't as asleep as he thought she was. This gave him an idea.  
  
When he and Shinobu got out to the kitchen, he started gathering the things he needed to make breakfast and also pulled out a tray.  
  
"Daddy? Why do you need a tray? I'm a big girl and I don't make messes anymore," Shinobu insisted.  
  
"Shh, let's try to surprise mommy this morning and bring her breakfast in bed, OK?"  
  
"Can I help, please?" Shinobu asked, completely enamored with the idea of surprising her mother.  
  
"Sure, here, you can make the toast, alright?"  
  
"OK, thanks Daddy!"  
  
Fifteen minutes later, a breakfast was arranged on the tray and Keiichi was about to take it to his wife when Shinobu suddenly ran off down the hallway.  
  
"Where are you going Shinobu?" asked Keiichi, quietly.  
  
"I'll be right back; I want to get something really quick!"  
  
Half a minute later, she was back, holding a white lily she had picked from Belldandy's indoor flower pot.  
  
"Here! Put this on the tray too!" Shinobu said as she tried to hand the flower to Keiichi.  
  
"How about you give it to her yourself and I'll take the tray in."  
  
Shinobu quietly tiptoed over to Keiichi and Belldandy's room and quietly opened the door. Keiichi thought he could see Belldandy close her eyes quickly as soon as the door opened.  
  
"Mommy! Wake up, I have something for you!"  
  
Belldandy opened her eyes and saw the flower that Shinobu was holding out to her. She sat up in bed and lifted Shinobu into her lap.  
  
"Why thank you Shinobu! Where did you find such a pretty flower? And what is Daddy carrying?"  
  
"It's a secret," Shinobu replied, giggling. "And Daddy and I made breakfast for you. I made the toast all by myself too!"  
  
"Why thank you Keiichi!" Belldandy gave one of her heartwarming smiles as she took the tray from him. "Would you like some too, Shinobu?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, Daddy forgot to make me breakfast!" She stuck her lower lip out at Keiichi.  
  
"Well then you can have some of mine then."  
  
The food on the trey was slightly overdone, and the toast was a bit burnt, but Belldandy loved it just the same because of the love that had gone into preparing it. Shinobu started picking at the food and ate some of it, but eventually started playing with it like usual. Suddenly, the juice on the tray froze solid. Keiichi noticed this and quickly went to thaw it out.  
  
After breakfast, they got dressed and Shinobu went to help Belldandy with the chores around the house and Keiichi left for his job at Whirlwind.  
  
When Keiichi got home later that evening, he noticed a lot of technical gadgets lying around in the living room and asked Skuld what they all were.  
  
"I'm finishing Mr. Immersion Mk V! We will be able to play the new game I bought tonight."  
  
"Well make sure everybody has a chance to play tonight," Keiichi replied.  
  
"Don't worry about it Keiichi! I made it so everyone can play it at once, see?" She pointed towards four odd looking helmets lying near her on the ground. "We should be able to play right after dinner."  
  
Dinner that night was rather hurried as Skuld and Urd wanted to try out the new game. After it was over they both rushed to the other room to set the computer up while Keiichi helped Belldandy clear the table. Shinobu followed Skuld and Urd wondering what the excitement was all about, then contented herself by playing with a small left-handed spanner that Skuld gave her.  
  
"Come on Keiichi and Belldandy! I want to try this out now!" Skuld insisted.  
  
"But who is going to watch over Shinobu? We can't all play at once," Keiichi pointed out.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll watch her, you go on and have some fun," said Belldandy with a smile.  
  
"Thanks Bell, so how do we play?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Just sit down and put the helmet on, the game will start up automatically and it will feel and act like you are really in the game! It's sooo beautiful…" Skuld sighed as she started petting the red and white helmet.  
  
"It does come off whenever I want, right?" asked Keiichi. He seemed to remember another helmet a few years ago that Skuld had designed to help him out with tests. It didn't come off until he answered every question correctly.  
  
"Of course it does!" Skuld insisted, putting a helmet on herself. "Switch…ON!"  
  
Keiichi and Urd each slipped on a helmet. At first, Keiichi couldn't see a thing, but then a screen showed up that let him choose what he looked like.  
  
"Um…Skuld? How do I pick what I look like?"  
  
"Just push the buttons; I designed it so you can interact with the game just by moving like you usually do. And don't worry about the face, I was able to get each of our faces into the game and I'm working on some other enhancements too."  
  
Keiichi looked at the options and decided to pick a blade master character. It seemed to be something like the traditional Samurai from Japanese history and he always wondered what it would be like to use a katana. Once he was satisfied with how he looked, he clicked the glowing "OK" button at the bottom and his view faded again.  
  
When his vision came back, he saw he was standing in a large city crisscrossed with waterways where many boats were moving back and forth. Several people were milling about in the streets, chatting and exchanging items. Behind him was something that looked like a large spinning ring with a blue crystal filling the middle. As he was wondering what it was, two other figures appeared next to him. One was a tall woman, wielding a big sword and the other was a shorter woman with two daggers, one in each hand. The faces were strangely familiar…  
  
"Urd? Skuld? Is that you?"  
  
"Of course it is silly!" replied the shorter lady. "Can't you tell by looking? I picked a twin blade class!"  
  
Keiichi looked closer and noticed the Goddess markings identifying her as Skuld. He turned to the other women and noticed that she had Urd's markings.  
  
"Urd? What class is that character?"  
  
"It's a heavy blade! The best character to beat up monsters with. Now let's get going, I want to play!"  
  
"I know, lets try out this area I read about in the game manual, it's supposed to be easy for beginners!" Skuld said. "But first we have to form a party. Just a sec and I'll send you an invitation."  
  
A moment later a little box appeared in front of Keiichi asking if he wanted to be a part of Skuld's party. He clicked the OK button and saw Skuld's health and other information appear at the bottom of his field of view, next to his own. A moment later and Urd's information joined his and Skuld's.  
  
"Ok, now all you have to do is tell the Chaos Gate, that's this spinning ring in front of us, where you want to go. Each location is made up of keywords that modify how the area looks and what kinds of monsters and treasure are in the area. Now we're off!" Skuld faced the Chaos Gate and said, "Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field!"  
  
Suddenly, the world faded out and was replaced with the sight of rolling green hills and strange looking windmills. Suddenly he heard a roar behind him and a large monster come running towards them. Urd gave a yell and ran towards the monster, swinging her sword while Skuld quickly ran up and started slashing with her daggers.  
  
"Come on Keiichi, don't just stand there, help us out!" Urd yelled.  
  
Keiichi snapped out of it and ran towards the monster swinging his katana. After about five minutes of battling, the monster was dead. It fell to the ground and faded away, leaving a gold colored treasure chest where it had fallen. Keiichi walked over, opened up the chest and looked inside. There was a small vial of green colored fluid in the bottom of the chest that he pulled out.  
  
"What's this?" he asked Skuld.  
  
"That's a health drink. It will replenish some lost health if you drink it. Your current health is indicated by the green bar under your name."  
  
After defeating several more monsters, Keiichi looked up at the clock at the top of his field of vision.  
  
"Hey! I have to go to bed now if I'm going to get up in time for work tomorrow, how do I get out of this?"  
  
"Just go back to town by clicking the 'Root Town' button and then log out from there. I'm going to stay a while longer and try to get more stuff with Urd."  
  
"Don't stay up too late you guys." Keiichi said before vanishing.  
  
Once he logged out, he removed his helmet and saw Belldandy sitting on the couch reading a book.  
  
"Sorry about that Bell, I wasn't paying attention to the clock."  
  
"Don't worry about it. You need to get to bed now if you want to not be exhausted for work tomorrow."  
  
"I know," he said with a grin, "is Shinobu already asleep?"  
  
"Yes, I put her to bed about an hour ago."  
  
Keiichi and Belldandy walked into their room together and fell asleep a few minutes later. Urd and Skuld were still playing the game until late into the night before finally logging out and heading to bed.  
  
"I thought I saw something strange just before logging out, it looked like a tear in the air and I heard some static. I wonder what it could be?" Skuld thought to herself before finally drifting off to sleep.


	2. The World

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 2: The World  
  
"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" Urd yelled as she slashed at the monster they were fighting. Urd, Keiichi, and Belldandy had been fighting this monster for almost 10 minutes so far and it still showed no signs of dropping. In fact, the only reason they hadn't all been killed already was Belldandy using her healing magic to keep them all alive.  
  
"How are you doing back there Bell?" asked Keiichi, "You need any mage souls?"  
  
"I'm fine Keiichi! Just keep attacking it!"  
  
Suddenly, the monster took a swipe at Keiichi and hit him back a few feet into the wall while he was distracted.  
  
"Ow! Now you're going to get it!" he shouted as he rushed back into the fight.  
  
"Maybe we shouldn't have picked such a high level area K!" yelled Urd as she dodged another attack from the monster.  
  
"No, really? Who was it that said they could take it and we would get lots of experience!"  
  
"Stop arguing you two, we're almost done with this dungeon, you can't quit now!" insisted Belldandy. She suddenly noticed Keiichi's low health and cast a quick healing spell to replenish it.  
  
Keiichi dodged another attack from the monster and saw an opening. He quickly lunged in, cutting a deep gash in the side of the monster. It roared in pain and Urd quickly swung at it while it was vulnerable, but it recovered quickly and blocked the attack with its shield. The monster then quickly kicked its foot out and tripped Urd up.  
  
"Urd!" Belldandy yelled as the monster raised its sword to attack Urd while she was on the ground. Belldandy quickly ran in and blocked the attack with her staff, straining under the force from the blow. Suddenly the monster hit her with his shield, knocking her over and inflicting some damage. By this time Urd had gotten to her feet and was facing the monster again.  
  
"Hey you! Your momma was so ugly even one of my potions couldn't get her a date!" shouted Urd.  
  
The monster, now enraged, swung wildly at Urd but missed by several inches. Now that its back was to Keiichi he ran in close and delivered two quick cuts to its back. He then looked over to see if Belldandy was out of the way yet, but she was out cold on the floor.  
  
"Belldandy! Get up!" yelled Keiichi. He could tell by the health bar at the bottom of his view that her hit points (HP) were almost spent. "Urd! Belldandy's down! Do you have any more health drinks? I'm all out!"  
  
"I didn't pick up any extras because she was supposed to do the healing, not me!"  
  
"Damn, we're going to have to take this guy out by ourselves! Hopefully Bell will snap out of it soon," thought Keiichi. He then felt a sharp pain in his back as the monster took advantage of his distraction and beat him to the ground and his HP bar started flashing, indicating that he was almost dead. The monster, convinced that he was down for the count, turned its attention back to Urd, the only party member still standing.  
  
Suddenly, they heard the door to the room open behind them.  
  
"Oh great, just what we need, another monster!" thought Keiichi, looking towards the door. But instead of a monster, a girl wearing the same style of armor as Urd and carrying a large sword was standing there.  
  
"You guys need any help?" she asked.  
  
"What gave you that idea?" yelled back Urd as she dodged another attack and quickly hit back with one of her own, "we're having a bit of trouble here!" She quickly dodged out of range of the monster and sent a party invitation to the newcomer.  
  
A second later, another set of stats appeared at the bottom of Keiichi's field of view, revealing that the girl's name was Mimiru, and from the amount of HP she had, she was probably a level or two above them. She then tossed a health drink to both Keiichi and Belldandy, healing their HP back to the point where they could stand again and rushed into battle, delivering a painful-looking hit to the monster they had been fighting. Belldandy slowly got up, still a little injured and cast a healing spell on herself and Keiichi to heal them back to full strength. She then quickly cast an attack and armor boosting spell on Mimiru to help out before quickly healing Urd who had also fallen rather low on HP.  
  
With Mimiru now fighting with them the battle slowly started turning in their favor as the monster was beaten back against the wall. A final blow from Urd finished off the monster and it faded from the room.  
  
"Whew…thanks for your help there," said Keiichi.  
  
"No problem, I'm Mimiru!"  
  
"I'm Keiichi, the heavy blade is Urd, and the wave master is Belldandy," he replied, pointing to each of them in turn. Belldandy smiled and Urd gave a little wave back. "We've been playing for about 3 weeks now."  
  
"You guys were pretty lucky that I happened to come along when I did. You almost got killed, what were you thinking coming to such a high-level place so early?"  
  
Keiichi started to say that it was Urd's idea but quickly shut up as Urd gave him a withering look.  
  
Noticing the little exchange, Mimiru decided to change the subject. "Well, shall we go pick up our reward?" she asked, running through the door ahead of them. Keiichi, Urd and Belldandy didn't follow immediately.  
  
"What happened Bell? Why didn't you get up?" asked Keiichi, a little worried.  
  
"I don't know Keiichi, I fell over because of the force of the blow, but then there was a sudden pain in my chest that lasted for a few seconds. It felt like…I don't really know what it felt like…"  
  
"I'm going to have Skuld look over this computer as soon as we finish here. I don't want any of us actually getting hurt playing. Well, we better go after Mimiru before she takes all the treasure."  
  
While they were talking, Mimiru had walked through the doorway towards the lone treasure chest in the room, when she spotted a lone wave master in grey robes looking rather confused.  
  
"Oh, hello there, I didn't know I had company. Hi there, I'm Mimiru."  
  
The wave master looked at her with a distant expression.  
  
"Is something wrong? Are you OK?" asked Mimiru, a note of concern in her voice.  
  
He flinched slightly, then turned to face her as she walked closer.  
  
"I hardly ever see a wave master working alone. You must be powerful! Are you?"  
  
The wave master glared at her and pulled a small device out of his robes. He activated it, and teleported out of the room.  
  
"Well that's a fine way to say hello! Hehe…oh well, at least he left the treasure chest." Mimiru said, pointing her sword at the chest.  
  
"Hey Mimiru? Who were you talking to? I thought I heard voices," asked Urd.  
  
"Hmm? Oh, I saw a wave master in here just kinda staring at the treasure chest, when I tried to talk to him, he warped out. Some people just have no manners!"  
  
"So what's in the chest?" asked Keiichi, "you look yet?"  
  
"Nope," replied Mimiru, "you guys walked in just as I was about to check."  
  
They walked through the open door and to the treasure chest in the last room of the dungeon. Keiichi opened the chest and pulled out a staff, along with two rainbow cards, which would bring a nice price back in town.  
  
"Hey Bell, think you can use this staff?" asked Keiichi, handing it too her.  
  
Belldandy inspected the staff, and replaced her current one with the new one. "Thanks K," she replied with a smile.  
  
"Here, this is for helping us with that monster back there," said Keiichi, handing a rainbow card to Mimiru.  
  
"Hey, what about me?" asked Urd. "What do I get?"  
  
"You got part of the treasure last time Urd, don't you remember? You'll get something from the next dungeon we beat together, OK?"  
  
"Fine," replied Urd, pouting.  
  
"Well, shall we return to town?" asked Belldandy.  
  
They all agreed and warped back to the root town.  
  
"Hey, I have to log off for a bit, here's my member address if you guys want to party again some time. See ya!" said Mimiru, logging out just after.  
  
"Well, I say we hit the shops and then log out and eat, I'm starving!" Keiichi said.  
  
"Oh, no! I forgot to get lunch going!" moaned Belldandy.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure Skuld made something up, you know how Shinobu gets at meal times," Keiichi replied, with a grin.  
  
The three of them visited the various shops in the area to restock on supplies and see if any new weapons or scrolls were worth getting. They then logged out of the game to eat.  
  
"Hey Skuld? You're not suppose to really get hurt playing this game right?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Of course not! It's just a game, why, what happened?"  
  
"Well, Belldandy said she felt a pain in her chest after getting hit by a monster, would you mind double checking your programming for me?"  
  
Skuld glared at him for a second before replying. "Fine! I'll check it, but I'm doing it because Belldandy was hurt, not because you asked!" She then hooked up a portable screen and started examining the program.  
  
"Well, I guess I better fix some lunch," said Belldandy as she headed off to the kitchen."  
  
"Oh, Belldandy? Kami-sama called you while you were playing and wants you to call back," said Skuld.  
  
"Really? I wonder what he could want…" Belldandy walked over to the phone and dialed his office number.  
  
"It is I," said a voice at the other end of the line.  
  
"Kami-sama, you wanted to talk to me?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Yes, did you feel anything unusual about 5 to 10 minutes ago?" he asked.  
  
"Well…I did feel a pain in my chest, but I thought that was from the game. Is something wrong?"  
  
"Possibly, at about that time, a young person fell into a coma while playing the game. They were rushed to a nearby hospital but are still unresponsive. After reviewing the information gathered from Yggdrasil by Peorth, it looks like the mortal's soul was transferred from their body, and into the internet. I want you, and your sisters to investigate this matter with the utmost caution. I will be sending some help in a day or two."  
  
"Yes, Kami-sama," replied Belldandy, her voice shaking slightly.  
  
"Oh, and put Skuld on the phone, I need her to do something for me."  
  
"Skuld? Kami-sama would like to talk to you," called Belldandy.  
  
Skuld walked over to the phone, a worried expression on her face. Her eyes grew wide as she listened.  
  
"Y…yes sir, I will," she said. She was shaking as she hung up the phone and went back to work on her computer.  
  
Belldandy went to the kitchen and started lunch. Skuld started typing on her computer.  
  
connect Yggdrasil  
  
Attempting to establish connection to Yggdrasil…  
  
Connection established  
  
You are connected to Yggdrasil at access point 154.145.875.876.235  
  
Username: Skuld  
  
Password:   
  
You have successfully connected as Skuld, Goddess 1st Class, Norn of the Future  
  
download comaantivirus  
  
Download starting…………………………………download complete  
  
install comaantivirus  
  
Installing Anti-Virus software, please wait…  
  
Installation successful  
  
Thank you for installing Peorth Anti-Virus, registration will allow Peorth to continually send you annoying e-mail accompanied by large amounts of rose petals, would you like to register now?  
  
No  
  
How long until you want to be reminded to register?  
  
NEVER  
  
That's Peorth for you, always trying to find an excuse to annoy people! You'd think she would eventually learn… thought Skuld as she closed the connection to Yggdrasil.  
  
"Skuld? Are you going to join us for lunch?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Be right there," she replied, quickly shutting down the computer and joining the rest of the family in the dining room.  
  
Belldandy brought out lunch and they all started eating, well, all except for Shinobu, who was playing with her food again.  
  
"So, Belldandy, what did Kami-sama want?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"He…there is a problem. That pain I felt in the game did not have anything to do with the game itself, but was me feeling the pain of a soul being torn out of its body and pushed onto the internet while playing that game."  
  
"But…how is that possible?"  
  
"I don't know, but Kami-sama wanted us to investigate the incident, He mentioned that He would send help in a day or two."  
  
"But, we'll have to get into the game to get some clues! How can we be sure that the same thing doesn't happen to one of us?"  
  
"That's what Kami-sama wanted to talk to me about," replied Skuld. "Peorth was able to construct an anti-virus program that prevents that from happening, based on the information Yggdrasil gathered from the incident. I installed it on our computer before coming to lunch."  
  
"But can't you just put that program on the internet for everyone to use?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Well…no. It only works on computers based on Yggdrasilian technology, in other words, our computer. A normal computer wouldn't know what to do with it."  
  
"Alright then, I guess we'll have to start investigating after lunch," said Urd.  
  
"You mean, we'll begin investigating, it's your turn to watch Shinobu," replied Skuld with a smirk on her face.  
  
"You wanna bet, brat?" Urd replied, lighting cracking around her fist.  
  
"Stop it now!" said Belldandy. "Urd, you know it's your turn you watch her."  
  
"Alright, alright," Urd replied. "C'mon kid, lets go find you something to do," she said as she picked Shinobu up. Shinobu giggled happily and waved her hands at the attention she was getting. And then Keiichi's tea froze.  
  
After the dishes were cleaned up, Keiichi, Belldandy, and Skuld went back out into the living room where the computer was set up.  
  
"So, how shall we start looking?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Obviously, we just keep playing the game, but we keep an eye out for anything suspicious and ask various people we meet if they know anything," replied Skuld.  
  
They put the helmets on and then found themselves near the chaos gate in the root town.  
  
"I'll page Mimiru, she might know something," said Keiichi. He waited for a few minutes, but did not get a response. "Hmm…guess we'll have to try something else for now."  
  
"Hey! You three by the chaos gate, want to party for experience points (XP)?"  
  
Keiichi looked up and saw a guy with short brown hair and the top half of his face painted with a blue design next to a woman with long blonde hair and a gold headband waving at them. The man looked to be a heavy blade while the woman was a wave master.  
  
"I'm Bear and this is my friend BT. We were looking for a few extra people to go to an area with us, you guys up for it?" he asked.  
  
"Sure," replied Keiichi after getting nods from Skuld and Belldandy. This would be a good opportunity to see if they know anything, he thought to himself.  
  
He, Skuld, and Belldandy received invitations to Bear's party, which they accepted. A few minutes later they were standing in an area, looking for some monsters to kill.  
  
"Over here!" said Bear, pointing at a spinning yellow disc that indicated a monster spawn point.  
  
They all joined him and approached the disc. As they got near, it dissolved, revealing a large crab-shaped monster. Belldandy quickly cast buffing spells on each of the party members, while BT sent a few lightning bolts at the monster, most of which hit, but did little damage. Keiichi, Bear, and Skuld surrounded the monster by positioning themselves in a triangle with the monster in the middle. Bear and Keiichi attacked first, hoping to draw its attention since they had the most HP in the group. Skuld quickly sneaked up behind it while it was distracted and embedded her dagger in its back. The monster reared up and quickly swung around, throwing Skuld to the ground and causing her damage. Belldandy quickly fixed the damage with a healing spell. BT stayed back and pounded away at the monster's armor with her lighting and fireball spells.  
  
After a few minutes, Bear stepped back and watched the rest of his party battle the monster. Seeing that they would be fine without him, he left the group to go to the spring of mist he saw nearby. The rest of the party failed to notice his departure.  
  
Bear found the spring he was looking for and sat down to rest. A wave master in grey robes suddenly teleported in next to the spring, and after staring at it for a minute, tossed a small dagger into the pool. A large water drop with eyes and a mouth appeared above the pool where he had thrown the dagger.  
  
"Hey, did something just fall in here?" asked the oversized drop of water. "Did you drop this golden axe? Well, did you? Or maybe it was the silver axe?"  
  
The wave master took a swing at the drop with his staff, but it dodged the attack.  
  
"Oh no!" it said before fading from view. Bear started laughing.  
  
"You having fun?" Bear asked. The wave master looked over his shoulder with an annoyed look before turning to face him.  
  
"Greetings, I'm Bear. You know I like to do that too whenever I happen to be feeling down. I can lend you a hand if you need any help, I'm always supporting newbies here and…"  
  
The wave master warped out without a word.  
  
"Well, he's certainly a shy one," said Bear to himself.  
  
BT walked up behind him.  
  
"Hey there! What's a swordsman doing abandoning our fight," she asked indignantly.  
  
"You were victorious I assume?"  
  
"Well, I'm worn out though."  
  
"Shall I help you recover?" Bear asked with a smirk.  
  
"I took care of that myself."  
  
"Well, then there's no problem. That's how everyone gains strength around here."  
  
"You're not being a gentleman."  
  
"Oh, I am gentle, but not a pushover."  
  
"There you guys are!" said Skuld, running up with Keiichi and Belldandy in tow. "What's the big idea leaving us to fight that monster alone?"  
  
"He thought he was doing us a favor by leaving," replied BT.  
  
"How was that supposed to be a favor?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"You gain more experience by fighting a monster with fewer people," answered Bear.  
  
"Well you still shouldn't have left us. Oh, by the way have you or BT ever heard of someone going into a coma because of playing this game?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"No, I haven't," replied BT. Bear shook his head.  
  
"Oh, well thanks anyway, shall we finish this area?"  
  
"Wait a sec," said Bear, "what kind of question is that? There is no way someone could be hurt physically while playing a computer game!"  
  
Keiichi, Skuld, and Belldandy glanced at each other.  
  
"Um…we read a rumor on the BBS about someone who was admitted to the hospital while playing the game. It said they were in a coma, and we were…a little worried it might happen to us or someone we know," said Skuld Thank Kami-sama I looked at the message board yesterday!  
  
"Oh…" replied Bear, with a skeptical look, "I guess I'll have to look at that once we're doing here."  
  
Skuld breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
Keiichi, Belldandy, Skuld, BT, and Bear fought several more monsters in the area and completed the dungeon over the course of a few hours before returning to the root town.  
  
"Well thanks for the good time," said Bear. "Here's my member address if you want to meet up again."  
  
"And here is mine, I'll see you guys later," said BT before logging out. Bear logged out soon after.  
  
"Well, I think we should call it a night," said Belldandy. "It's too bad we didn't find out anything, but there's always tomorrow."  
  
The three of them logged out of the game. Belldandy went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, Skuld started working on the computer, and Keiichi went to his room to work on some paperwork.  
  
That night as they were lying in bed, Belldandy felt that same pain in her chest. Keiichi, noticing her tense up asked her what was wrong.  
  
"I felt it again, that same pain, but not nearly as strong. I hope it didn't happen again," she replied. She and Keiichi fell into a fitful sleep.  
  
Elsewhere in Japan, a man screams while playing a computer game and tears off his visor before falling off the chair, unconscious. 


	3. Log Out?

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 3: Log Out?  
  
The following day Urd walked out to the main living room to see Skuld sitting in the middle of a large pile of electronics with the computer in several pieces around her.  
  
"Skuld! I was planning on playing some today! What the heck are you doing?"  
  
"I'm finishing some modifications that will allow us to use our powers in the game, do you mind?" Skuld replied, glaring back at Urd. "Or maybe you would prefer not to be able to use yours?"  
  
"Ehehe…sorry for bothering you…I think I'll go watch my soaps now," replied Urd with a sheepish grin on her face as she headed back to her room.  
  
"Let's see…all I need to do is wire the power collectors on the headsets to the computer and I should be done."  
  
Skuld bent over the various parts in front of her and continued working for another fifteen minutes before finally holding the headset up in triumph.  
  
"I'm such a genius! I dub you Mr. Power Converter Mk. I!" Skuld said as she slipped the headset over her head. She booted up the game and started looking for a place she could try a simple water spell without being noticed. As she started casting the spell a few sparks shot out from the headset and a muffled explosion occurred which blew the headset completely off Skuld's head. Belldandy came running at the sound of the explosion and saw Skuld passed out on the floor, muttering something about ice cream and small little birdies.  
  
"Oh Skuld! You shouldn't keep experimenting on yourself!" Belldandy admonished as she held her little sister and cast a quick healing spell.  
  
"Wha…what happened?" asked Skuld. She sat up and saw her headset, now lying in a smoking heap a few feet away. "Oh no! What happened to you? You were so perfect! Well, guess I have to start on Mk. II!"  
  
Belldandy sighed, wishing that Skuld would get things right the first time for once instead of hurting herself by going through four or five revisions. Hopefully "Mk. II" would be less explosive, but she doubted it. If anything, Skuld's inventions tended to get more explosive with revisions, even if they did fail less often.  
  
A few hours (and explosions) later, Skuld had finally finished a working version, the "Mk. VI"  
  
After dinner, Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld picked up the game for adventuring and testing out the new features that Skuld had added, while Keiichi keeps Shinobu occupied with a coloring book. The three goddesses appear in the root town and quickly teleport to a low-level field to practice using their spells in-game.  
  
"So, Skuld, how do we cast spells anyway?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Just the way you normally would do it in the real world, the power converter in the headset connects to your markings, reads the spell you want to cast and produces the same result in game. You should be able to do any spell in game that you can do in real life. We should be able to use them more openly here since magic is a part of the world, but should probably hold back the larger ones for when they're really necessary since there is no in-game equivalent for them and they would look a little strange. Besides, you wouldn't want to exhaust yourself while playing anyway!"  
  
"Ohohoho, I suppose I have a bit of advantage here then, little sister!" said Urd. "My spell casting abilities are much higher then yours! URD LIGHTING BOLT!"  
  
"Oh yeah? I might not have your magic prowess, but I still have all my bombs! Eat this! NEO SKULD BOMB AWAY!"  
  
A bolt of lightning shot down and struck Skuld at the same time a small spherical object sailed toward Urd and exploded. They both ended up with half health, which Belldandy healed.  
  
"Hey, where did you get those you little brat! You didn't mention anything about other modifications!" said a scorched-looking Urd.  
  
"So I made a few extra changes to my character!" replied Skuld, sticking her tongue out at her older sister.  
  
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"  
  
Urd and Skuld turned towards the new voice to see that a twin blade character had grabbed Belldandy from behind while they were arguing and was holding one of his daggers against her neck.  
  
"Looks like a few cute low-level newbies. Give me your member addresses or I'm afraid I will have to kill her," grinned the newcomer.  
  
"Do you really want to mess with us?" asked Urd, with a smirk on her face.  
  
"Oh, I think I am more then a match for the three of you. Besides, if any of you move, she gets killed. Now, your member addresses please," he replied, tightening his grip on Belldandy.  
  
Bell quickly sent a telepathic message to Skuld, Skuld, can we use our angels in the game as well?  
  
Yes, anything you can do in the real world should work here, why?  
  
Just make sure you have a few bombs ready, and Urd, cast a few bolts on this guy once I get him off me.  
  
You got it sis replied Urd, her eyes narrowing, I'll distract him and you do whatever it is you're planning  
  
"Well I suppose if we're going to give you our member addresses, you should at least give us your name," said Urd to the stranger.  
  
"Of course," he replied, relaxing his grip on Belldandy slightly, which was all she needed. "It's Sora, now…"  
  
While Sora was talking, Belldandy summoned her angel. Come forth, Blessed Bell!  
  
To Sora's surprise, a flurry of wings erupted from Belldandy's back, right before a white fist impacted his surprised face and sent him flying backwards a few yards. Urd and Skuld then attacked him with everything they had. Sora never knew what killed him.  
  
Belldandy shivered slightly at the memory of his grip while her angel shook her fist in an attempt to alleviate the pain somewhat.  
  
"Wow Bell, I've never seen you use Blessed Bell like that. That's something I would expect from Urd, not you," said Skuld, shooting a quick glance at Urd, who glared at her.  
  
Belldandy blushed slightly before recalling her angel. "Well…I couldn't let him hurt me, could I?"  
  
"C'mon, lets head back to town before that pervert comes back," said Urd.  
  
The three of them teleport back to the root town and go shopping for a few items before seeing a female heavy axe in a light blue dress flanked by two heavy blades in red who appeared to be questioning the people in town.  
  
"Who are they?" asked Skuld.  
  
"The girl is Subaru and the two people that are flanking her are members of the Crimson Knights, don't you read the BBS?" replied Urd.  
  
"Of course I do! They try to keep order on the servers right?"  
  
"Yeah, that's right, Subaru is their leader," said Urd.  
  
At that moment, Subaru and the knights with her walked up to them.  
  
"Have any of you seen or heard of a wave master named Tsukasa? He wears a grey robe and has grey hair and carries a silver staff with a red gem," asked Subaru.  
  
"No, we haven't seen him personally, you might want to talk with some friends of ours, Bear and Mimiru, I think they may have seen the person you're looking for," replied Belldandy.  
  
"Thank you for your time," replied Subaru, turning to leave.  
  
"Wait a minute," said Urd. "Do you know of a character named Sora? He tried to kill us earlier before we chased him off."  
  
Subaru's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I'm afraid we have, he seems to like to kill low level players for fun, where did you see him?"  
  
Urd gave her the name of the field where they were attacked.  
  
"Thank you for your help, we're doing the best we can right now but our resources are spread a little thin as it is. All I can do is to warn you to stay away from him as he seems to be rather powerful," Subaru said before moving off to question some other people walking by.  
  
"Well, I hope they catch that creep," said Urd.  
  
"We better log off for the evening," commented Belldandy. "It's getting late."  
  
The three goddesses logged out from the server and put away the equipment. Skuld was about to shut the computer down when the screen began glowing and a young man fell out, rolling as he hit the ground. He stood up and started brushing himself off.  
  
"Sorry about that, I was going to let you know I was coming, but I…uh…kinda had to leave in a hurry," said the stranger.  
  
"Kenaz!?!" said Skuld with a look of surprise on her face.  
  
Standing in front of them was a young man almost as tall as Urd, dressed in a light blue loose-fitting shirt and pants with a white cloak. He had a horizontally-elongated diamond under each eye and a diamond on his forehead that was split in half to look like two triangles. His eyes were blue and his long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail that reached down to his mid-back.  
  
"Hello Skuld, long time no see," Kenaz replied, grinning nervously.  
  
"You jerk!" yelled Skuld. "I know it was you who planted that virus in my computer during the Yggdrasil debugging class!"  
  
"Ehehe…" Kenaz replied, glancing towards to door while trying to figure out if he could make it out before getting blasted by one of Skuld's bombs. "It was all in good fun! Really! I didn't know you would lose your final project!" he said.  
  
Skuld reached into her jacket as was about to pull out one of her bombs when Belldandy stopped her. Kenaz peeked out from between his arms that were shielding his face, wondering why he hadn't been blasted yet.  
  
"Skuld! That's no way to treat a guest!" insisted Belldandy.  
  
"But he…"  
  
"Skuld, he is our guest and will be treated as such. Besides, how long ago was that incident?"  
  
"Um…about ten years ago…" replied Skuld, looking down at her feet.  
  
"A little long to hold a grudge don't you think?" asked Belldandy.  
  
Skuld just continued to shuffle around nervously.  
  
"So, what brings you here Kenaz? We haven't seen you for almost ten years," asked Belldandy.  
  
"Well, I was kinda nervous about visiting after what happened," he replied, glancing over at Skuld. "But then you three left for Earth all of a sudden and I got stuck with the debugging tasks that Skuld left behind."  
  
"Serves you right!" replied Skuld, who was still pouting.  
  
"Yesterday Kami-sama called me into his office, and told me that I had to come down here and help you guys investigate this problem with 'The World'"  
  
"But why send you?" asked Urd. "We all know you're just a second-rate hacker!"  
  
"Hey! I'm the best hacker in heaven!" retorted Kenaz.  
  
"Yeah, right, that's why you always got detention after school," taunted Skuld.  
  
"Well…" replied Kenaz, looking down at the floor. "I, um…I hacked Yggdrasil, and started browsing some of the personnel records, just to see if I could do it of course, and accidentally changed Freya's hair color to a fluorescent green. She got a little ticked off and told one of the sys admins who investigated and found out I did it."  
  
"Stop it you three," said Belldandy, looking at Urd, Skuld, and Kenaz. "This is no time for an argument. We're all tired right now. Kenaz, I prepared the guest room for you when I heard Kami-sama was sending someone to help. If you follow me I'll show it to you."  
  
Urd and Skuld went off to their bedroom while Belldandy showed Kenaz to his room. They bumped into Keiichi who was removing the last of his motorcycle books from the guest room into his room.  
  
"Oh, hello Bell, who's this?" he asked.  
  
"This is Kenaz, he was sent by Kami-sama to help us with our investigation. Kenaz, this is Keiichi, my husband."  
  
"Pleasure to meet you Keiichi; I've heard a lot about you. You and Belldandy are quite a topic in heaven you know."  
  
Belldandy and Keiichi blushed slightly at the comment.  
  
"Nice to meet you too Kenaz," replied Keiichi. "Do you need any help settling in?"  
  
"No thank you, I'll be fine."  
  
"Well, don't hesitate to ask for anything." Keiichi said as he headed down the hallway to his room.  
  
The following evening Keiichi, Urd, Belldandy, and Kenaz log onto The World and page Bear, BT, and Mimiru. Kenaz had decided to be a blade master character like Keiichi. While they wait for the others to arrive, Belldandy and Urd show Kenaz how to use his powers in game. They run around the area for a while to get Kenaz used to playing and to level him up slightly. Once Bear, BT, and Mimiru showed up they sat down and started talking.  
  
"Have any of you guys met a guy named Sora?" asked Urd.  
  
"Yes, it was a rather… unpleasant experience," replied BT, who shuddered at the memory. "He got the drop on me and asked for my member address. Of course I refused to give it to him and he killed me."  
  
"We told the Crimson Knights about him but they seem to be spread rather thin right now. We were able to fight him off when he showed up however, so if you need any help with him, just send us a message. We'll be happy to pound that pervert for you," replied Urd.  
  
"How did you do that?" asked Bear. "From what I hear, he's pretty high level and you guys don't look too tough."  
  
"Well…we are more skilled then we look. We just had to surprise him, that's all," said Urd.  
  
Bear shot her a skeptical look, but decided not to pursue the matter further.  
  
"Anyway," said Mimiru, "have you four ever heard of someone not being able to log out of The World?" She looked at Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, and Kenaz for a response.  
  
"We, uh, heard about some odd happenings in the game through the BBS," replied Urd. This might be the guy we are looking for! "Why do you ask?"  
  
"Well, this guy I met, his name was Tsukasa, seems to be unable to log out of The World."  
  
Belldandy, and Urd glance at each other quickly.  
  
"This wouldn't happen to be the guy that those Crimson Knights are looking for is it?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Yeah, why? Did they talk to you too?" replied Mimiru.  
  
"Well, we told them to ask you or Bear about him since you had seen him before and not us," said Urd.  
  
"So that's why they thought we knew something…" mumbled Bear.  
  
"We don't think he's done anything wrong," said Mimiru quickly. "His guardian attacked us without provocation yesterday and he couldn't stop it. I don't think he knows what's going on either."  
  
"His guardian?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Yeah, looks like a big, gold, dumbbell. Shoots sharp strands of something. We've heard that it can kill players in a single shot. It almost got me," said Bear.  
  
"What stopped it?"  
  
"I don't know for sure, it looked like a cat. It seemed to have control of the guardian. I want to talk to Tsukasa about it, but he hasn't responded to my e-mails."  
  
"Well, he sent me a reply earlier today and says he wants to meet tomorrow in 'Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground'," said Mimiru.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me about that earlier?" asked Bear.  
  
"He said he wanted just me to come, and I didn't have time to tell you earlier today. But I don't really want to go alone; would any of you please come with me?"  
  
"Sorry, but we all have plans to go to the beach for the weekend," replied Keiichi, indicating Belldandy, Urd, and Kenaz.  
  
"And I have to work tomorrow," said BT.  
  
"Bear? What about you? Will you come with me?"  
  
"I don't really like this, but I suppose I can," Bear replied with a sigh.  
  
"Well, we have to go get ready for our trip tomorrow," said Belldandy. "We'll talk again after we get back, alright?"  
  
"Have a good trip," replied Mimiru.  
  
Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, and Kenaz then logged out of the game and started packing for the weekend before heading off to bed since they had a long day ahead of them. If any of them were to look up at the ceiling, they would have noticed a tile slightly ajar with two eyes with glowing red slashes looking down on them.  
  
"Hahahaha! So they are going to the beach tomorrow are they?" said Mini-Mara from her hiding place in the ceiling. "I'm so glad that my new cloaking spell is working!"  
  
"Not well enough you demon!" said a voice from behind her.  
  
Mara looked behind her to see three small female ninjas, the same size as her in her current form.  
  
"My name is Kodama!" said the one on the far right.  
  
"I am Hikari!" stated the middle one.  
  
"and I am Senrigan!" said the one on the left, "You are not welcome here. Leave before we chase you out!"  
  
"You traitorous ninja! I'll get you for this someday!" Mara yelled as she took off. If only I could go full size without losing the cloaking spell I could deal with those troublesome ninja once and for all!  
  
Back in her lair, the demoness Mara began formulating her latest scheme for getting rid of the goddesses once and for all.  
  
"So, you are interested in our activity in The World, huh? And you look so helpless sitting in front of that junk pile that Skuld calls a computer. Soon, you will be forced to go back to heaven where you can bother me no more! Muahahahahaha!" 


	4. Beach Trip

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 4: Beach Trip  
  
"Beach day!" yelled Shinobu as she jumped on top of a sleeping Keiichi.  
  
"Ow, what the…" groaned Keiichi as he was pinned by his would-be assassin. "Shinobu…what are you doing up so early?" Keiichi asked.  
  
"Because we're going to the beach today!" she replied with the energy only a 2-year-old could muster at 7 in the morning.  
  
Keiichi glanced over at the door to his room and noticed Urd standing there in her robe, looking like she had been woken up in a similar manner.  
  
"Next time we go to the beach, Shinobu gets to sleep with you guys the night before, she kept me and Skuld awake late last night and jumped on us both this morning," said Urd. "I'm going to take a shower to wake up, call me when breakfast is ready."  
  
Belldandy tried to stifle a giggle as her older sister plodded off to the bathroom. "I guess I better get breakfast started, why don't you and Shinobu pack for the weekend. I'll call you when it's ready."  
  
"Ok, Bell, thanks. C'mon squirt, we have to pack you some clothes."  
  
Keiichi reached into his closet and pulled out a suitcase to put his and his daughter's stuff in for the weekend. The goddesses didn't need to pack clothing since they could always materialize whatever they needed, and any other things they wanted to take could be magically stored.  
  
"I'm glad we don't have to have Bell and her sisters pack in suitcases or we would have to rent a truck to carry all the stuff they would bring," Keiichi mumbled to himself as he got dressed.  
  
He threw in the typical assortment of clothes a guy would bring on a weekend trip, three changes of clothes (one was extra in case a set got wet), a swimsuit, nightclothes, and his bathroom essentials. He walked over to the girls' bedroom and knocked to make sure no one was in the room. Hearing no response, he opened the door and started packing some clothing for Shinobu.  
  
"Hey Shinobu, why don't you pick out a few toys you want to bring with you for the weekend," said Keiichi.   
  
"Ok," she replied brightly and proceeded to pick out a couple of stuffed animals, two or three children's books (one of which was titled the "Big Picture Book of Super-Natural Beasts", given to her by Belldandy, who had gotten it from her mother) and a crystal that was a toy meant to help god children work on their telepathic skills.  
  
"Shinobu, we can't take all of those with us, we don't have enough room. Why don't you pick out two items to take? We'll have plenty of things to do at the beach," said Keiichi with a smile on his face.  
  
Shinobu screwed up her face in what looked like intense concentration, and finally decided on the "Big Picture Book of Super-Natural Beasts", and her favorite stuffed toy, a plush angel she had named Snowball.  
  
Keiichi carefully packed these items in with the clothes, closed the suitcase, and carried it back to his room. At that moment Belldandy said it was breakfast time and went to go get Urd, Skuld, and Kenaz.  
  
Shinobu and Keiichi went out to the main room to a wonderful traditional Japanese breakfast and sat down, waiting for the rest of the family to show up. Once everyone was gathered around the table they discussed their plans for the upcoming weekend.  
  
"Well, we should get to the beach house I rented just before lunch, so we can eat and unpack before heading down to the beach to spend the afternoon. I also have tickets to the aquarium so we can go there on Saturday," Keiichi suggested. "We should leave Sunday open to spend some time on the beach before packing up and heading back here."  
  
"How about a BBQ tonight?" suggested Belldandy. "You did a great job cooking last time we had one Keiichi."  
  
"I hadn't thought of that, but it's a great idea. We'll just have to stop by the store on the way to pick up something to grill and I'll pack the grill in the back of the car."  
  
"Can I bring Banpei and the submarine attachment?" asked Skuld.  
  
"I suppose so, as long as you don't make me ride it," replied Keiichi. Even though he could swim now, thanks to Belldandy teaching him at the local pool, he was still not confident enough to go out far in the ocean.  
  
"And I want to bring my chemistry set," said Urd.  
  
"As long as you don't make anything that is permanent and you always have an antidote with you," replied Belldandy.  
  
"Geez, you guys are no fun," mumbled Urd under her breath.  
  
Soon after, breakfast was finished and Keiichi was cleaning up while Belldandy prepared box lunches for everyone. Urd went off to pack her potions and chemistry set while Kenaz helped Skuld pack her tools and mecha parts since he really hadn't unpacked yet.  
  
"So, um, Skuld, um…are you still mad at me?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"Well…I guess not, as long as you don't do anything like that again," replied Skuld.  
  
They spend a few more minutes in awkward silence, putting various tools and parts in Skuld's pocket dimension, which was a god's personal dimension used to store what ever they wanted. It definitely saved on storage space and made traveling a lot easier.  
  
"Skuld?" asked Kenaz, trying to break the silence.  
  
"Yeah?" she replied.  
  
"What are Banpei and the submarine attachment you were talking about at breakfast?"  
  
"Oh, Banpei is a robot I built shortly after coming to Earth that does various tasks around the house and helps detect and drive off any demons that want to cause us trouble. He's kind of my pet project. The submarine attachment I made a month or two afterwards. I called the first version 'Deep Six' and had Keiichi test it out for me. It looks kind o like an oversized jet-ski but it can submerge. I added an oxygen filtration system to it about a year ago that removes oxygen from the water and stores it in tanks so the riders can breathe while underwater."  
  
"Sounds like fun, how many people can ride it?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"Only two, though I haven't used it recently, it will need to be fixed up before we can ride it. Hey, that gives me an idea; you want to help me fix it up after we get to the beach? I'm sure its software could also use an upgrade. We…could take it out afterwards if you like," said Skuld.  
  
"Really? That would be great!" said Kenaz, so eager at the prospect of improving one of Skuld's inventions that he didn't notice her hesitation in asking and the slight smile she displayed after he accepted her offer.  
  
They quickly finished packing and went out to the main room to see Belldandy bringing out the last of the lunches.  
  
"Are you two ready to go?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Yeah, we are, do you need any help taking those out to the car?" asked Kenaz, pointing towards the lunches she was carrying.  
  
"That would be great, thank you," replied Belldandy with a smile.  
  
Thirty minutes later, they were all crammed into Keiichi's small car that he had purchased once Shinobu was born. Urd was in mini form because the car only had five seats and there were six of them going. They stopped by a store on the way to pick up some meat and vegetables for the BBQ later that evening.  
  
They arrived at the rented beach house an hour later and began to unpack. Belldandy, Keiichi, and Shinobu took the master bedroom, Urd and Skuld picked the second largest bedroom, and Kenaz took the smallest room. After unpacking and eating lunch, they got changed into their swimsuits and walked to the beach for the afternoon.  
  
Kenaz couldn't stop stealing glances at Skuld in her swimsuit when he thought she wasn't looking as they headed down to the beach. Urd noticed this with a grin and walked over to him.  
  
"Like what you see, lover boy?" asked Urd with a sultry grin on her face as she hugged Kenaz from behind.  
  
Kenaz's nose sprung a leak as he tried to push Urd off of him. Skuld noticed her sister's antics and ran over to pull her sister off.  
  
"Urd! Cut it out, you're bothering Kenaz!" Skuld said.  
  
"Fine, fine, can't stand a little joke can you?" said Urd as she let go and walked off towards the beach.  
  
After claming a spot and setting up the grill for use later that day, Belldandy, Keiichi, and Shinobu went tide pooling while the tide was still out. Urd left to "experiment" with some of her new potions while Skuld and Kenaz pulled out the Deep Six and worked on it.  
  
"So, Skuld," said Kenaz while working on some of the software for the sub, "you've been on Earth for what, eight years? I never had a chance to talk to you during that time, what have you been doing?"  
  
"Oh, nothing much, just building mecha, preventing Urd from doing something stupid with her potions, and saving the universe twice."  
  
"Oh, really? I think you need to keep track of Urd better then," Kenaz remarked, pointing to a young man on the beach who was running after a girl, while another girl (apparently his girlfriend) was chasing after him, yelling as loud as she could. Urd was rolling in the sand nearby, laughing hard.  
  
"Grrr…Urd!" Skuld stomped off towards her older sister. "What do you think you're doing? Give him the antidote now!"  
  
"Geez, you're no fun…fine, but only because Belldandy would get on my case afterwards, not because you told me to," Urd replied with a pout.  
  
"I swear, someday she is going to do something she'll regret…" Skuld muttered as she walked back to where her sub was lying in pieces on the beach towel.  
  
Kenaz was chuckling at the scene when Skuld came back. "I see you and your sister get along just as well as you did back in heaven," he said with a grin.  
  
"Oh shut-up!" Skuld said with a glare, before going back to work on the machine. She then got a smirk on her face as something came to her. "You know, Kenaz, in those eight years in heaven, did you ever get a girlfriend?"  
  
"What!?" Kenaz said, a blush coming to his face. "Wh…what ever gave you that idea?"  
  
"Well, you're what, 22 now? Which means you've probably gone to college already. Don't tell me you never found a cute, young goddess you liked."  
  
"Um…no, not really. I, um, never had time to do anything like that. I was always working on homework, or debugging my section of Yggdrasil, or any number of other things. I never really met anyone I liked," Kenaz said, looking down at his hands. "Um…hey, if we're going to ride this thing today, we're going to have to work on it and stop talking!" Kenaz quickly went back to typing, trying to push the conversation out of his mind.  
  
While Kenaz and Skuld debated the finer points of ionic propulsion systems, Belldandy and Keiichi were showing Shinobu the several animals that lived on the seashore. Unfortunately whenever little Shinobu got too excited, the object of her excitement more often then not ended up nice and cozy in its own little ice cube. Belldandy had her work cut out for her thawing out the local oceanic population and repairing the inadvertent damage.  
  
At around five that afternoon, everyone had gathered back at their spot on the beach and Keiichi and Kenaz grilled the food that they had picked up earlier that day. They ate on the beach together while Shinobu messed around in the sand before tiring herself out and falling asleep on the beach towel.  
  
"Well, looks like little Shinobu has finally worn herself out," said Keiichi. "Belldandy and I will take her and most of this stuff back to the house, you guys just bring the rest of it when you come back ok?"  
  
"I just remembered that I have to work on some of my new formulas," commented Urd with a sly smile on her face. "I'll follow you guys back."  
  
Keiichi, Belldandy, and Urd took Shinobu and all of the beach equipment except for the umbrella and towel back to the house with them, leaving Skuld and Kenaz alone on the beach.  
  
"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Skuld. "We need to test out those modifications we made to the sub!"  
  
"Alright," replied Kenaz.  
  
They took the sub down to the water and dropped it in once they were out far enough that it could float without getting stuck in the sand.  
  
"Um…how are we both going to ride this?" asked Kenaz. "There only appears to be one seat."  
  
"Don't be silly, there's plenty of room, you sit in front and I'll sit behind you. That's why we added the extra handlebars halfway down the sub!"  
  
"Oh, right. I guess I forgot about that." Kenaz said with a sheepish grin.  
  
He hopped onto the front of the sub, strapped the goggles and oxygen mask on and grabbed onto the handlebars. Skuld jumped on behind him, following suit.  
  
"Ready?" asked Kenaz through the microphone built into the mask.  
  
"Ready!" replied Skuld.  
  
They started out slow, heading out to deeper water on the surface so Kenaz could get a feel for how it handled. After driving the sub around for roughly a half hour they decided to dive and see how well it worked underwater. After diving, they turned on the headlights since the sun had already sunk below the horizon and the ocean was starting to get dark. Fortunately the oxygen filtration system was working perfectly (well, at least it hadn't exploded yet) and they would be able to stay underwater for as long as they wanted, thanks to the onboard fusion reactor that provided power to the sub.  
  
Kenaz slowly followed the ocean floor as he headed out to sea. After a while they came upon some coral reefs that were teeming with ocean life. The coral glowed brilliant shades of orange, blue, and green under the sub's headlights as the schools of brilliantly colored fish scattered from the intruder to their domain. They spent the better part of two hours out there among the fish and other sea animals, amazed at the color and variety of plants and animals that made their home in the reef. Finally, they decided it was time to head back to the beach.  
  
"Hey Skuld, hold on tight, I'm going to see how fast this thing can go after we surface!" Kenaz said.  
  
He brought the sub up to the surface and pointed it towards the shore before opening the throttle and they took off at top speed, the wind and sea spray flying by them. Even though it had taken them almost a half hour to get to the reef underwater, it only took them ten minutes to get back on the surface at top speed. Once back at the beach, they dried themselves off with the towels and picked up the rest of the stuff left on the beach before heading back to the house.  
  
Once back at the house, they found Keiichi and Belldandy sitting together on the deck, just enjoying each other's company as they watched the sea glittering in the moonlight.  
  
"Welcome back Skuld, Kenaz," said Belldandy. "Did you have a good time?"  
  
"Yeah we did! The sub worked well and we went out and explored the reef off shore, it was really great!" replied Skuld with enthusiasm.  
  
"Well, you two go get washed up, you don't want to go to sleep after being out in that seawater so long," said Belldandy.  
  
Both Skuld and Kenaz headed back inside so that they could get a shower in before heading to bed.  
  
"Keiichi, I'm glad that Kenaz is here now. It's the first time I've seen Skuld act like herself since she heard about Sentaro," said Belldandy quietly.  
  
"I know, it's nice to have her back to her old self. You don't think…?"  
  
"She certainly acts like it around him doesn't she?" replied Belldandy with a slight smile on her face.  
  
After taking her shower, Skuld went back to her room and quietly got into bed, trying not to wake Urd, who was sleeping in the second bed in the room.  
  
"Kenaz sure has changed since I saw him last," Skuld said quietly to herself. "He doesn't pick on me any more and is much better with computers now. And that ride out to the coral reef was nice, maybe we can go out again tomorrow after the aquarium visit." Five minutes later Skuld was asleep in her bed, a slight smile on her face.  
  
Meanwhile, Kenaz was having similar thoughts as he lie in bed. I'm glad Skuld isn't so bratty anymore and that she doesn't hate me anymore for those stunts I pulled back in school. I also liked that sub she built; we got to see some amazing stuff in the ocean today because of that. I hope we can go out again tomorrow… He was also sleeping soundly shortly thereafter.  
  
A few miles away, a certain demoness was pacing back and forth in her lair, looking a little ticked off.  
  
"Those goddesses! Disappearing on me when I had spent all week thinking of a way to get back at them. I spent all morning setting everything up, but when I get to the temple, are they there? No! And they don't even come back all day!"  
  
At that moment a lesser demon that looked like a camcorder with wings and a tail chose that unfortunate moment to walk in. It looked up at its mistress and twittered to her in its own language.  
  
"What do you want?!" snapped Mara at the demon that had disturbed her.  
  
It twittered back to her, backing away slightly at her tone of voice.  
  
"Oh really? You saw where they went huh? Well then come here and show me." Mara grabbed the demon's tail and plugged it into the large TV in the room. On the TV she saw her rivals leave the temple and head to the beach by car.  
  
"Why didn't you come get me earlier when they left?" she asked with a glare.  
  
The demon shied away from her slightly and replied back with a meek sounding warble.  
  
"Oh, well I suppose it was a good idea to follow them to find out where they were staying. But next time tell me the moment they leave! Now go watch them again, I need to come up with a new plan!"  
  
It nodded quickly and ran out of the room to carry out its mistress' orders.  
  
"Well, so you decided to take a little vacation, huh Belldandy. Then you won't be under the protection of all those wards you have around the temple. A prime opportunity to strike!" Mara sat down and began to plan her next move.  
  
An hour and a half later she suddenly stood up. "That's it! I'll make you regret ever coming to earth!" she loudly proclaimed before flying out the door and into the night towards the beach. 


	5. The Demon in the Aquarium

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 5: The Demon in the Aquarium  
  
A short while later Mara arrived outside the house that Keiichi and the goddesses were staying at. One glance at the house showed the wards that had been put up around the building, not as powerful as the ones back at the temple and the house here wasn't holy ground, but it would hurt to try to pass through them unaided.  
  
"Hmm… now to figure out what their plans are for tomorrow…" Mara muttered to herself.  
  
The little camcorder demon that Mara had sent on ahead flittered up to her and twittered something.  
  
"Oh, so they're going to the aquarium for a little sightseeing huh? There should be plenty of fun things there to mess with," she said, with a slightly disturbing smile on her face. She then flew off to the aquarium to "scout out the terrain" as she put it.  
  
A few minutes later Mara arrived at the aquarium, which was closed for the night. After phasing through the front door she started looking around for any information on probable tours that Keiichi and the goddesses would take tomorrow. After a quick search she came to the security room which had a map of the entire building along with a list of tour guides on duty tomorrow and their routes. She reached into her pocket dimension and took several pictures of the map and schedule with a digital camera and then left the room to walk through the building and see if any opportunities presented themselves.  
  
"Well, it appears that there are two main tours, one of the outside tanks with the large fish and one of the inside tanks with the smaller animals. Messing with the large tanks would be fun but there is a lot of open ground out there where I could be seen so probably not the best idea. I wonder what the ceiling crawlspaces in here look like…"  
  
Mara floated up and stuck her head through the ceiling to take a look around.  
  
"Aaaachooo! Don't they ever clean up here? The dust must be centuries old." Mara muttered to herself. "Looks like there are several pipes and catwalks going all over the place up here though, and it's plenty dark with lots of places to hide and sneak around in. Looks like I'll have to work with the inside tanks."  
  
After a quick look around and noting the location of a few specific tanks Mara left the aquarium and went back to the local video arcade where she had set up her temporary lair in the basement for the weekend to plan tomorrow's excitement.  
  
The next day after a leisurely breakfast, Keiichi and the goddesses left for the aquarium with a lunch packed by Belldandy. As soon as they were gone, the camcorder demon flew back to its master's lair and told Mara of their departure. Mara quickly left and flew toward the house where they were staying. After inspecting the wards that had been placed on the house, she opened a small portal and rummaged around inside for a few seconds.  
  
"Hey, where are you…" Mara said after rummaging around for a few minutes. She stuck her head into the portal and quickly found what she was looking for. "There you are, come here you're going to help me with something."  
  
Mara pulled out what looked like an octopus with large eyes and set it down on the ground next to her.  
  
"Well, my little booster-demon, you're going to help me get inside," Mara said as she shrunk down to mini size and hopped on top of the little demon. "Now fly me inside!"  
  
The little demon flew through the wall and past the wards protecting the house, boosting Mara's power so she was unharmed by the wards. Once inside, Mara returned to full size and quickly began searching the house. After a few minutes she found what she was looking for – Urd and Skuld's room. She quickly inspected the potion ingredients that Urd had stacked along the wall and swapped a few of the contents around, "To liven thing up" she said.  
  
After mixing things up for Urd she went over to the partially disassembled Deep Six and looked for anything she could do to mess it up. After a quick inspection she spotted a few wires that she could swap around without being too obvious.  
  
Mara then went back to Urd's stash of potions and started sorting through them looking for something that would be useful at the aquarium.  
  
"Hmm…love potion, love potion, love potion…geeze, how many love potions does that goddess have anyway? What else is in here…ooh, a hate potion and…an indifference potion? Why would she make one of those? I will never understand that goddess…Hey look! There's even one for increasing your bust size, I'll definitely take that one with me."  
  
She quickly grabbed a few select potions and put them into her pockets before shrinking back down the mini size and riding the booster demon out through the wards again. Once outside and back to her full size, she flew off towards the aquarium. Once there, she shifted back to mini form and made herself invisible to the mortals visiting the place. She quickly located the goddesses as they had made no effort to hide themselves and their strong aura indicated that they were looking at the outside exhibits.  
  
Satisfied that they were currently occupied she floated up through the ceiling and went around to a few of the tanks indoors and rigged them with the potions she had taken from Urd's stash to release the potion into the water when one of the goddesses walked close by.  
  
"Heh heh, this should cause quite a bit of mayhem. Now to sit back and watch the fireworks!" Mara muttered to herself with a wide grin plastered on her face. She quickly cloaked herself in her best shielding spells and kept an eye on her targets from a distance.  
  
Urd paused for a split second as she was eating lunch. She thought she felt something…off, but it was so slight that it was probably nothing.  
  
"What is it?" asked Belldandy, who had noticed her sister's slight pause.  
  
"Oh, nothing, thought I felt something, but it's gone now," Urd replied.  
  
They finished eating a few minutes later and went indoors to look at the tanks inside that contained the smaller marine life. As they looked through the tanks, Belldandy was busy trying to thaw out the various animals without anyone noticing after Shinobu accidentally deep froze anything she got excited over.  
  
As they approached the baby shark tank a small vial broke unnoticed above the tank and its contents fell into the water and quickly dissipated. Shortly thereafter the sharks in the tank started chasing after each other.  
  
"That's funny, I don't remember sharks ever being that viscous or ever going after their own kind…I wonder if some blood accidentally got into the tank?" muttered Keiichi when he saw the odd behavior of the sharks.  
  
"You're right," said Belldandy, "there is something odd in the way they're behaving. But I suppose the aquarium workers know what's wrong and will fix it shortly."  
  
Suddenly, one of the sharks broke away and swam hard towards Keiichi, smacking against the glass loudly, but not enough to crack it. Keiichi stumbled back, startled as someone in an aquarium uniform rushed up.  
  
"Hey, the sharks in tank 12 are acting up, send someone over to check on them," said the man into a hand-held radio.  
  
"Roger, we have someone on the way," the radio squawked back.  
  
"Head along to the next exhibit please," said the man as he motioned the onlookers off.  
  
Keiichi and the deities walked off to look at another exhibit, assuming that it was just an isolated incident. But when they approached the octopus tank, another small vial broke and deposited its contents into the tank.  
  
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say this octopus had a love-struck look on his face," said Urd.  
  
"How the heck would you know that Urd? It's just an octopus, they don't have facial expressions," replied Keiichi. Then he looked at the octopus. "Oh," he said, "I think you're right, though I've never seen an octopus look like that before."  
  
"Something's fishy going on around here," Urd said as she cast a spell to make herself invisible before floating up through the ceiling to check on the tank.  
  
"Hey, there's a small broken vial up here, looks like one of mine. And there's what feels like the remnants of a small spell cast on it." Urd's eyes narrowed as she realized who was behind this. "Mara…"  
  
Urd quickly turned to the sound of laughter behind her. Mara was in mini form rolling around in the ceiling, laughing hard. She also noticed that Mara was rather close to the octopus tank she had drugged and that she had not noticed her arrival yet.  
  
Urd quietly snuck over and gave Mara a little push towards the tank.  
  
"Eeep!" Mara exclaimed as she rolled into the tank. The octopus, seeing a new occupant to go after that was more readily accessible then the people outside the glass, changed targets and started swimming towards Mara.  
  
Mara's eyes got large as she saw the animal swim towards her and frantically swam to the top of the tank and levitated back into the ceiling crawlspace where she saw Urd doubled over with laughter. Annoyed, Mara sent a small force bolt towards Urd which zapped her in the middle of her back.  
  
"That's what you get for pushing me into the tank!" said Mara.  
  
"You deserved it after what you tried to do with the animals here. Just what were you trying to do anyway? And how did you get a hold of my potions?" Urd retorted.  
  
"Well…I was hoping one of the animals would get out or break the glass or something and cause general mayhem. Looks like I underestimated how strong the glass on those tanks is. You know, just the usual make trouble for Keiichi stuff," Mara replied with an innocent-looking grin on her face.  
  
"That is one of the lamest stunts you've pulled recently, are you sure you're not loosing your touch?" Urd sighed. "Mara, Keiichi and Belldandy have been married for 3 years now, when are you going to get it into your head that you can't separate those two?"  
  
"Who said I was trying to separate them?" Mara replied with a smirk on her face. "Well, it's been nice talking to you and all, but I have things to do, mortals to trick, goddesses to annoy, oh wait, did I say that last one out loud? Sorry," Mara said with a smile on her face as she faded from view and flew out of the aquarium back to her lair.  
  
After Mara left, Urd scanned the broken vial she held and determined what set off the vial. After masking her aura so she wouldn't set off any more of the little devices, she examined each tank in the aquarium and removed the remaining vials. Fortunately the potions Mara had picked were temporary ones and the effects would wear off in an hour or so. She safely disposed of the vials and then flew back to the group before canceling her invisibility spell.  
  
"What was that all about Urd?" asked Belldandy.  
  
"Nothing major, just Mara up to her usual stunts. I sent her off and removed the remaining stuff that she had set up," replied Urd. "Shall we look at some more exhibits here? There shouldn't be anymore sharks trying to attack you," she said with a grin at Keiichi.  
  
After touring the remaining parts of the aquarium with no more incidents, the group headed home as it was getting late in the afternoon. Once they arrived, Belldandy started preparing dinner and Skuld dragged the Deep Six out from her room to the back deck where she and Kenaz started working on it again.  
  
After a few minutes there was a muffled explosion and Urd rushed out to see what had happened. She found Skuld and Kenaz, slightly singed among the remains of the Deep Six's engine, which had apparently exploded, taking out a nice sized chunk of deck with it.  
  
"You know you should always double check your work Skuld," Urd said with a grin. "Or it might blow up on you like everything else you make."  
  
"I did check my work! And my stuff doesn't always blow up! Besides, my inventions work more reliably then your potions!" Skuld retorted.  
  
"Um…break it up guys," said a nervous Kenaz, trying to break up the sibling fight before it began.  
  
Urd and Skuld both gave him the glare of death.  
  
"I'll be over here if you need me…" said Kenaz with a thin smile on his face. He quickly left the area and took a few of the parts with him in hopes to fix what had gone wrong.  
  
After Kenaz left, Urd and Skuld continued to glare at each other for a few more minutes and would have probably started tossing bombs and bolts around if Belldandy hadn't come out to repair the damage to the house and prevent things from getting too violent. Urd then left to continue to work on something in her room while Skuld found Kenaz and brought him back to help repair the damage done and fix the Deep Six.  
  
A minute or two later, a second explosion occurred, but this one was inside the house. Skuld looked over and saw that her and Urd's room had a much bigger window then she remembered. It was also minus any glass. In fact, they had quite a nice hole where the outside wall used to be. With a slight grin on her face she looked through the new hole and saw a slightly blackened Urd lying in the midst of potion ingredients and broken vials.  
  
"Don't…say…anything," said Urd with a look that could kill.  
  
Skuld just returned to her work on the sub, trying to suppress the large grin on her face, and not completely succeeding.  
  
After Urd had cleaned up the mess she examined the remains of her lab.  
  
"That's odd, some of these ingredients are in the wrong bottles." Urd growled as she realized who was responsible. "That's it, I'm calling mother and getting her to take get Mara off of our back. I've had enough of her meddling!"  
  
Urd left her room and went to the closest phone to dial hell, which interestingly enough had almost the same number as heaven, except that the last digit was a 6, not a 7.  
  
"Hello? Put me through to Hild please…yes I know she requires an appointment, but she'll make an exception for me…this is Urd…yes I know she'll be happy to talk to me…just put me through ok?" Urd winced a second later as a loud, feminine, and not-at-all demon-like, squeal came through the headset.  
  
"Hello mother…yes, I know I should call you more…we're fine…look the reason…yes I promise to call you more…the reason I was call…that's great, I'm sure your happy with the new demon…look, mother…mother…MOTHER…thank you. The reason I was calling was because Mara has been bothering us again…yes I know it's her job, I'm just sick and tired of it…look just take care of her ok?...Thank you…good bye mother…good bye…yes I'll call you soon…good bye…" Urd hung up the phone quickly before her mother could get another word in. "I hate talking to her," she muttered to herself before going back to her room to fix the mess that was a result of Mara's meddling.  
  
A few miles away, in the basement of a certain video arcade, a phone rang. Mara glanced over at it with an annoyed expression before answering.  
  
"Hello? Oh hello Hild, so nice to hear from you," she said while trying to cover up her wince at finding out who was calling. "Oh, so Urd called you…yes I know she never calls you…well why do you think I mess with her so much…yes I know you appreciate it…oh, you want me to stop for a while…but I thought you liked hearing from her…yes, I understand…ok…yes…YOU'RE WHAT? But you can't move the schedule up! Yes I know there is a new god living with them, but…alright…whatever you say…good bye."  
  
Mara slammed down the handset. "Dammit! We're already running on a tight schedule and she wants to shorten it. Guess I'll have to go back to my lair and get back to work."  
  
Mara quickly packed up her stuff and flew out of the arcade, heading back to the one the usually stayed in while making things difficult for the goddesses.  
  
The following day Keiichi and the deities went down to the beach for the last time before heading back home. Skuld and Kenaz took the newly fixed Deep Six out for a spin in the coral reefs again while Keiichi, Belldandy, and Shinobu built a sandcastle near the water's edge. Urd was off somewhere on the beach again, testing out some new potions she had made the night before.  
  
At around lunch time the group packed up their stuff on the beach and loaded the car with the things they had brought. They quickly ate a light lunch before heading back to the temple so that Keiichi could get ready for work the following day. After arriving back at the temple, Skuld and Kenaz logged into The World to see if they could locate either Bear or Mimiru and find out the results of their meeting with Tsukasa. Bear responded to their mail and agrees to meet them in Mac Anu, the root town for theta server.  
  
"So, about this Tsukasa guy," began Kenaz, "he can't log out right?"  
  
"Yeah, that's what I've heard," replied Skuld.  
  
"Is he linked to the comas that we are investigating?"  
  
"I don't know, it's possible since from what I understand he hasn't been able to log out since this mess started a few days ago," said Skuld.  
  
"Hey!" called Bear as he spotted them. "How was your trip to the beach?"  
  
"It was fun, we went to the aquarium nearby too," replied Skuld.  
  
"So did you find anything out when you met with Tsukasa yesterday?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"Not much, Mimiru didn't really want to go, so I went in her stead and found Tsukasa where he said he would be. He seemed disappointed that Mimiru didn't show up but then showed me that his Guardian was tame, though I didn't really believe him. It usually takes a long time to tame something like that, even in The World. Unfortunately I must have scared him off because he left before I could ask him anything. I did meet Mimiru as I was leaving though, said she changed her mind, but I wish she would have done so earlier. Tsukasa may not have run off then."  
  
"Hmm…that's not too much help," said Skuld. "Do you know if he could be connected to the coma victims mentioned on the forums?"  
  
"I'm not sure, I did a little digging and Tsukasa hasn't been able to log out since about the time a couple of people went into a coma, so he may be someone who was a victim, though I don't know how he could possibly be in The World if he's unconscious," replied Bear.  
  
"Even so, we should probably check it out. Do you know if Mimiru might know when he started being unable to log out?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"She might, she was the one that informed me, let me see if she's online," replied Bear.  
  
A few moments later, Mimiru came running up.  
  
"Hey Bear, what's up? Oh hi Skuld and Kenaz, how was your trip?" asked Mimiru.  
  
"It was fine, you wouldn't happen to know when Tsukasa was first unable to log out do you?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Hmm…I can't say for sure, but the first day I met him it looked like he tried to log out at one point, and seemed surprised that he was unable to. If I had to guess, I would say that's when he was first unable to log out."  
  
"Well, it's something to go on, could you give us the date and time?" said Skuld.  
  
"Sure, I'll e-mail it to you so you don't have to write it down." Mimiru paused for a second, and a new mail notice appeared on Skuld's console. "There you go, I have to get to bed, my mom's bugging me about staying on too late. See you guys tomorrow if you're online!" said Mimiru as she logged out for the evening.  
  
"Well, now that I have the date and time, I'll forward the message to you Bear and you can check out any hospitals for coma patients admitted around that time in your area. Kenaz and I will check things out at our end. Hopefully we'll find someone who matches," said Skuld.  
  
"Sounds like a good idea, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow and we'll compare notes. Have a nice evening," replied Bear as he logged out.  
  
Skuld and Kenaz logged out as well shortly thereafter. After removing their headsets, Skuld brought up a list of local hospitals.  
  
"This shouldn't be too bad, there are only two that would handle patients from this town, we can check them out tomorrow, we should also check Yggdrasil's database for anything odd that may have happened around that time," said Skuld.  
  
"Ok, and I'm going to start working on a program that can help trace down the terminal he was using at the time. Shouldn't be too difficult with Yggdrasil's help. Not exactly legal, but I'll just have to make sure I don't get caught," Kenaz said with a grin.  
  
Skuld and Kenaz went to bed shortly thereafter and slept dreamlessly. 


	6. The Nature of the Wavemaster

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 6: The Nature of the Wavemaster  
  
The following morning Skuld and Kenaz left for the closest hospital to check for any recent coma patients. After entering the lobby of the hospital, they walked up to the information desk and talked to the lady currently manning the desk.  
  
"Excuse me, could you tell me if anyone was admitted to this hospital in a coma around this time?" asked Skuld, handing the lady a piece of paper with the date and time of Tsukasa's first log out attempt.  
  
"I'm sorry, but unless you are a relative of the patient or from the police, I'm not allowed to give out that information," the lady replied with a forced smile.  
  
"Oh c'mon, it's not like we're asking for all their personal information and medical records," insisted Kenaz.  
  
"Sorry, I can't do that. Anything else I can help you with?"  
  
"No, thanks for nothing," mumbled Skuld as she drug Kenaz out of the hospital. "Dang it! Why couldn't she just give me a yes or no answer! Grrr…c'mon Kenaz, let's go check out the other hospital on our list."  
  
The other hospital proved to be just as helpful, however, and refused to provide any information to them as well.  
  
"Well, that was a lot of work for nothing. I Guess we'll have to attempt a less 'orthodox' method of finding out," Kenaz said with a slight grin on his face.  
  
"That program you were working on? Neither the police, nor Kami-sama would be particularly pleased with you if they caught you."  
  
"I know, but I'm not going to write a program. I figure I can hack into the hospitals' database and find out the information that way. Compared to hacking Yggdrasil, this should be a piece of cake!"  
  
"Yeah, but you got caught the last time you tried to hack Yggdrasil."  
  
"Um…I guess I'll just have to be more careful then, won't I?" said Kenaz with a sheepish grin.  
  
"Fine, whatever, maybe with my help we'll get by unnoticed, it's not like we have any other options at this point," replied Skuld with a sigh, shaking her head slightly.  
  
They eventually make it back to the temple after stopping for lunch and go into Skuld's room to begin their project.  
  
"I'll be right back, you go ahead and start setting up the stuff in here," said Kenaz while stepping outside the room. He came back a short while later with a second computer and several circuit boards and wires.  
  
"What are all those for? We're just hacking a mortal database."  
  
"I told you, I'm being extra careful," replied Kenaz as he took off the cover to Skuld's computer and started hooking things together. A short while later he was done. "Ok, we should be ready to go, just let me double check the connection…there, we're in."  
  
"That was quick," said Skuld, a note of surprise in her voice.  
  
"Of course, I'm as good with computers as you are with your mecha," he said with a grin.  
  
Skuld blushed slightly at the complement, which went unnoticed by Kenaz, who was staring intently at the screen looking for the information they were seeking.  
  
"Alright, bringing up the records of all the patients admitted on the day we're interested in…" Kenaz quickly typed away for several seconds before giving up and declaring that there was no one at that hospital that fit the criteria they were looking for.  
  
Skuld sighed, "What about the second one?"  
  
Kenaz typed away for a few more minutes while lines of text and records flashed by on the screen in front of him. "Looks like the second hospital isn't it either. Nothing matching what we are looking for. I guess we'll have to wait until we can talk to Bear and see if he found anything, though it is a slim chance that we would find him. There isn't any guarantee that he is even a Japanese player," said Kenaz while leaning back in his chair, looking disappointed.  
  
"I think he is though, Bear didn't mention that Tsukasa's Japanese had any accent, and those auto-translation tools people use don't sound completely correct, which Bear or Mimiru would have definitely picked up on," replied Skuld.  
  
"So? It just means he speaks Japanese well, doesn't mean he's actually accessing from there. I know there are only Japanese servers right now and the client hasn't been translated to any other language that I know of. But still, you know how some Americans and Europeans get when they want to play the latest role-playing game from Japan."  
  
"I know, but there's still a good chance he's a Japanese player, let's just wait until we can find out from Bear."  
  
"Alright, let me log out here and disconnect everything before someone gets suspicious…"  
  
Just then the phone rings. Skuld and Kenaz could hear someone pick it up and Belldandy talking for a minute before calling for them.  
  
"Skuld! Kenaz! The phone is for you!"  
  
"Coming!" replied Kenaz. "Who would be calling us here?"  
  
"Maybe it's your girlfriend in the heavens," Skuld said with a grin.  
  
"Cut it out, you know I don't like anyone up there like that!"  
  
"Hello?" said Skuld as she picked up the phone off the counter where Belldandy had left it.  
  
"It is I," said a voice on the other end.  
  
"K…k…Kami-sama! What a surprise! Um…what did you want to talk about?" said Skuld, sweating slightly as she wondered why HE would bother calling her.  
  
"Is Kenaz there with you?"  
  
"Yes, he is," replied Skuld.  
  
"Good, do you care to tell me what you have been doing for the past hour or so?"  
  
"Um…we've been trying to do what you've told us. Researching the problem with The World like you asked."  
  
"I don't remember giving you permission to hack into a mortal database, and a hospital at that," said Kami-sama, his voice growing slightly stern.  
  
"Well, they wouldn't give us the information we asked for, and that information would help us a lot in finding a solution to Tsukasa's problem!" Skuld insisted, but sounding more like she was slightly whining.  
  
"And you couldn't just call someone up here to get permission to use Yggdrasil to find out for you?"  
  
"Um…well, we didn't think of that," replied Skuld meekly.  
  
"Very well, next time you need some information you can't get normally, ask for permission first. But as punishment for breaking into a database and accessing private information I am going to restrict both your and Kenaz's license for one week."  
  
"But…" argued Skuld, a look of panic starting to form on her face.  
  
"I don't want an argument on this. Until one week is up, you and Kenaz will be unable to use your powers for anything other then mundane tasks like changing clothes unless you ask for permission from Belldandy, Urd or myself."  
  
"Yes sir," she replied, looking defeated.  
  
"I know you're eager to get to the bottom of this mystery but don't forget to ask next time you need some information instead of getting it illegally. You know that Yggdrasil can always get it for you," said Kami-sama, a hint of a smile in his voice.  
  
"Yes sir, thank you."  
  
"Goodbye then."  
  
"Goodbye," Skuld said before hanging up the phone. "Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been," said Skuld as she turned to Kenaz with a sad smile on her face. "We'll just have our power restricted for a week to the basic stuff. We just need to remember to ask permission next time."  
  
"Yeah, that could have been a lot worse. We could have had our licenses suspended like your older sister has all the time," replied Kenaz with a slight smirk.  
  
"I heard that!" called out Urd's voice.  
  
"Anyway, let's get back online and see if Bear's found out anything yet," said Skuld, heading over to the computer they used to access The World.  
  
A short while later both she and Kenaz were back in Mac Anu waiting for Bear who said he was on his way back from a dungeon he was exploring.  
  
"Skuld! Kenaz! Over here!"  
  
They looked and saw Mimiru waving at them as she ran over.  
  
"Good thing I caught you before I logged out. So, any luck in finding Tsukasa in the real world?" Mimiru asked, slightly out of breath.  
  
"Not really, we couldn't find anyone admitted with a coma around the time you gave us," replied Skuld sadly.  
  
"That's too bad, looks like we're back to square one," said Mimiru with a sigh.  
  
"Not exactly, Bear was also going to check out a few places for us and he's on his way to meet us here in a few minutes. Just had to finish up the dungeon he was working on. Do you want to wait for him with us?"  
  
"Sorry, I can't. My mother has been bugging me to finish my homework before dinner tonight so I have to log off for an hour or two. I'll be back on later tonight, will you guys be around?"  
  
"We should be," replied Skuld.  
  
"Great, I'll see you guys later then!" said Mimiru before logging out.  
  
A few minutes later Bear came walking up to them. "Sorry it took so long, the dungeon I was in was deeper then I thought."  
  
"Don't worry about it, we didn't find anyone unfortunately. Were you able to find anything?" asked Kenaz hopefully.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I did. Found a girl by the name of Miyuki Kamina who was admitted to a hospital in a coma roughly two hours before Tsukasa was supposedly unable to log out. They apparently found her passed out in her room in front of her computer, which was off at the time. Not an exact match in time and situation, but the closest I could find," replied Bear with a shrug of his shoulders.  
  
"Thanks a lot Bear, any other information on her?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Not really, hospitals only record so much information besides medical history."  
  
"How did you get this information anyway? They turned us away when we asked," said Kenaz.  
  
"I have my sources, and a few favors people owe me. How did you find out if there was anyone admitted if they turned you away? Especially since you're just kids."  
  
"Hey, how do you know how old we are? We could be the same age as you, it's not like the avatars in the game look like us," said Skuld.  
  
"Just call it an old man's intuition," Bear replied with a smile, "but you didn't answer my question."  
  
"Well, Kenaz is pretty good with computers, but we got caught by our parents and grounded," said Skuld with a sheepish grin on her face.  
  
"Ha ha ha ha! That's funny! You were able to get around the hospital's security and not get caught by them or the police and your parents caught you?"  
  
"Yeah, it is kinda embarrassing…" replied Skuld. Except that our "parents" aren't exactly what someone would call normal parents. I suppose it was too much to expect to hide it from Kami-sama.  
  
"Well, anyway, I'm going to try to trace down Mimiru and see if she can set up a meeting with Tsukasa so we can ask him about the girl I found," said Bear after he had finished laughing.  
  
"Well, you just missed her, she had some homework to do before dinner and logged off for a bit, though she did say she would be online later," said Kenaz.  
  
"Oh, alright, well I ate a little while ago so I think I'll go attempt to level up at another dungeon until she logs in. Maybe she'll want to help me out before we talk to Tsukasa."  
  
"Well my older sister is calling us to dinner so we'll be offline for a bit. We'll try to catch you later tonight to see what you find out. Later!" said Skuld before she and Kenaz logged out.  
  
"Now, back to the chaos gate. Let's see what would be a good place to go level at…" said Bear as he made his choice and warped to the field.  
  
After dinner Kenaz and Skuld went back to the computer running the game.  
  
"You know, now that we have the name of the person Bear found, we should try tracing the connection to see if that coma was caused by the game," commented Kenaz.  
  
"Good idea, but we should call heaven and get permission first."  
  
"Oh, right, forgot about that."  
  
Kenaz went over to the phone and dialed heaven. After a few rings a disturbingly familiar voice answered.  
  
"Why hello there, you've reached Yggdrasil's control center, how can I serve you today?"  
  
"Urd! What are you doing answering the phone?" asked Kenaz, shocked.  
  
"Hey, I work too you know!" replied Urd, sounding indignant.  
  
"You could have fooled me with how much you lounge around down here."  
  
"You keep insulting me and I won't help you out," said Urd, sounding slightly threatening.  
  
"Fine, fine, look, we're trying to trace someone through the internet and need Yggdrasil's help," said Kenaz.  
  
"What, you can't do this with your own computer?"  
  
"Well, we could if we were trying to just trace connections. But we're trying to trace someone's spirit connection."  
  
"Why would someone's spirit be in the inter…oh wait, you're researching that issue with The World, right?" asked Urd.  
  
"Yeah, we think that we might have located someone in the real world who might be trapped in the game and we want to trace it to make sure."  
  
"Alright, I think I can help you with that, on one condition."  
  
"What's that," asked Kenaz nervously. I hope it isn't anything perverted, but knowing her…  
  
"Why Kenaz, don't you trust me?" asked Urd seductively.  
  
"Um…I'm not answering that question."  
  
"Humph, be that way. Anyway, you have to agree to take Skuld on a date." Even though Kenaz couldn't see Urd, he could hear the grin in her voice.  
  
"WHAAAT?!"  
  
"You heard me, take Skuld on a date. A real one, with dinner and a movie, not to some auto parts store."  
  
"Are you kidding? What makes you think I would want to do that?"  
  
"I saw the way you were acting around her at the beach; you can't fool me that easily. After all, I am the love goddess," said Urd with a flourish.  
  
"Fine, I agree, now will you let us use Yggdrasil?" Kenaz replied, trying to sound annoyed, but not quite succeeding. He had to admit that the idea of taking Skuld out was rather appealing.  
  
"Of course, and I'll be watching you to make sure you keep up your end of the deal."  
  
"Gee, thanks, just what I need."  
  
"What was that? I don't think I heard you."  
  
"N…nothing! Thank you Urd."  
  
"You're welcome, now get to work, you have a person to find," said Urd before hanging up the phone.  
  
Kenaz walked back into the room where Skuld was waiting with a slight blush on his cheeks. "We have permission to use Yggdrasil to search, so let's get started."  
  
"Are you ok? You look slightly flushed," asked Skuld.  
  
"I…I'm fine, c'mon we have a person to find," replied Kenaz, turning his head away slightly to hide his face from her.  
  
After several minutes they were able to trace Miyuki's spirit trail to a computer terminal and the servers that ran The World, but there it became disrupted and they were unable to locate the player it was attached to.  
  
"Well, we know she's still in The World somehow, but something's preventing us from looking any further," said Kenaz, sounding puzzled. "That's really odd, mortals shouldn't be able to disrupt a spirit trace like this."  
  
"Maybe there's someone else that doesn't want us tracing it. Could it be a demon?"  
  
"I suppose, though I don't see why they would. Anyway, we're not going to get any more this way, looks like we're stuck."  
  
"Maybe, but we might be able to trace it the other way" asked Skuld.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, if we can't get from the person to the character, maybe we can go from the character back to the person. I can write a small program that will attach to the character data in game and trace the path for us," said Skuld.  
  
"How long would that take you? We should meet up with Bear soon to see if he had a chance to speak to Tsukasa yet," replied Kenaz.  
  
"Shouldn't take me any longer then fifteen or twenty minutes with your help. I already have a program we could modify so we won't be starting from scratch." Skuld sounded excited with the prospect of finally being of some use to help track down Tsukasa's player.  
  
"Alright, let's get started."  
  
Skuld and Kenaz spent the next fifteen minutes modifying one of Skuld's programs to do a reverse trace on Tsukasa and appear as a small item in The World that they could clip on Tsukasa's clothes, hopefully without him noticing. Once finished, they logged back into The World and paged Bear. He showed up a few minutes later with Mimiru and BT in tow.  
  
"So, did you have a chance to talk to Tsukasa?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Yeah, we did, though he claims he's a guy. Since I don't see any reason to disbelieve him I am guessing we have the wrong person. Though it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Miyuki just in case she is related to the things going on."  
  
"That's disappointing, is there any chance we can talk to Tsukasa soon?" replied Kenaz.  
  
"Maybe, I heard about a Heavy Blade character who supposedly has the same sort of monster that Tsukasa has following him," said BT. "Mimiru already sent a message to Tsukasa asking him to meet her and Bear there tomorrow since he will probably want to investigate the rumor."  
  
"Sounds like a good idea, would you mind if we tagged along?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Not at all," replied Bear, "though BT won't be able to make it so it will just be you guys, me and Mimiru."  
  
"That's fine, so where do we go?"  
  
"Here let me send you the field keywords and time we're meeting," said Mimiru.  
  
A few seconds later the keywords showed up in Skuld's e-mail.  
  
"Alright we'll see you guys tomorrow then, have a good night," said Skuld as she and Kenaz logged out.  
  
"Why didn't you tell them about the tracer program, Skuld?" asked Kenaz once they had removed the headsets.  
  
"If we did they would want to know how we made it and got it into the game, and you know we can't tell them that," replied Skuld. "Besides, we don't want to attract any more attention to ourselves then necessary as our characters aren't technically legal."  
  
"Yeah, you're right. Well, tomorrow we'll find out who Tsukasa really is hopefully," said Kenaz. "Oh, and another thing, what are you doing Friday night?"  
  
"Um, let me think for a sec…nope not doing anything, why?"  
  
"Well…would you…um…would you like to go to dinner and a movie afterwards with me?" asked Kenaz nervously.  
  
"Are you asking me out on a date?" asked Skuld, surprise and slight embarrassment evident on her face.  
  
"Um…yeah, I guess so. So do you want to go? We can go to an ice cream shop afterwards too."  
  
"I think I can go with you," said Skuld, a small smile on her face.  
  
"You can? That's great, um what time should I pick you up?"  
  
"Huh? We live in the same house dummy," said Skuld, looking amused.  
  
"We do? Oh yeah, right…well…um…hey look it's getting late, we should be heading to bed."  
  
"Well, goodnight then Kenaz."  
  
"Goodnight Skuld."  
  
They both got up and went to their respective rooms. Soon after Skuld closed her door she heard what sounded like a shout of triumph coming from Kenaz's room which brought a smile to her face as she got ready for bed.  
  
"About time you got up the nerve to ask her, so what if I had to give him a little push," said Urd slyly as she quietly shut the door to her room where she had been keeping an eye on them.  
  
The following day, Kenaz lost the coin toss to Skuld and had to man his computer while Skuld, Belldandy, and Keiichi logged into The World to talk to Tsukasa and plant the tracer that Skuld had created.  
  
"Man, why did I get stuck doing this," he asked Skuld once she logged in.  
  
"Because, either you or I have to run this program when the tracer is placed, and you lost the coin toss."  
  
"Doesn't make me feel any better about it…" muttered Kenaz to himself. "Whenever you guys are ready."  
  
"We're teleporting to the field now," replied Belldandy. "We will let you know when to start."  
  
"Well, I don't see anyone in the field right now," said Keiichi, "maybe they warped in at a different location, let's go take a look around."  
  
After a few minutes of searching the field and fighting a few random monsters that they happened to stumble upon, Skuld received a message from Mimiru.  
  
"Hey guys, Mimiru says that she and Bear have arrived, but they don't see anything either. They want us to meet them to help look," said Skuld.  
  
"That's odd, we've covered a good portion of the field and haven't found anyone, do you suppose that Heavy Blade isn't coming?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Maybe there never was a Heavy Blade in the first place…" said Belldandy.  
  
"What do you mean Bell?"  
  
"Maybe the rumor was spread deliberately; the Crimson Knights did put out a wanted notice for Tsukasa. Maybe someone is trying to trick Tsukasa into coming here to be captured?"  
  
"You might be right! I'm sending a tell to Bear and Mimiru about this," said Skuld quickly. "Let's run to the meeting place quickly!"  
  
After a few seconds Skuld received a reply back.  
  
"Oh no! We were right! Bear and Mimiru tried to warn Tsukasa, but he came anyway and he's now being attacked by the Crimson Knights!"  
  
Skuld, Belldandy and Keiichi ran off towards Bear and Mimiru's position as fast as they could. When they got there, there was nothing but dead and wounded Crimson Knights scattered around the snowy ground, and no Tsukasa. Bear, Mimiru, and Subaru were there as well and it looked like Bear and Mimiru were arguing with Subaru.  
  
"I swear I had nothing to do with this attack!" insisted Subaru, a little more loudly then she would have liked. "However, I did want to talk to Tsukasa since he attacked four players a few days ago with his guardian and killed them. He has also been breaking other rules of The World recently."  
  
"That doesn't mean you can apprehend him like this!" replied Mimiru angrily.  
  
"He was a criminal who was breaking the rules of the game and had to be detained," said Silver Knight, sternly.  
  
"Silver Knight!" said Subaru sharply. "I will talk to you about this later." She turned to Mimiru and said in a softer voice, "I am sorry, but I do have a few questions to ask Tsukasa and then we will release him if he hasn't done anything wrong, I promise."  
  
"Excuse me," interrupted Skuld, "would you mind if we talked to him as well?"  
  
"I don't see why not, feel free to talk to him when I'm done, here's where we sent him," replied Subaru, sending the area keywords to Skuld.  
  
"Thank you very much," said Belldandy, bowing slightly, "is there anything we can do in the meantime? Some of these players look rather beat up."  
  
"If you wouldn't mind, I could use your help healing them."  
  
"Of course not, I'll get started right away," replied Belldandy with a smile.  
  
"Kenaz, looks like we're going to have to wait on that program, Tsukasa got captured by the Crimson Knights and we won't get to see him for a few, so we're logging out for lunch as soon as Belldandy is finished helping the Crimson Knights here," said Skuld.  
  
"Alright, I'll start something for lunch, later."  
  
After the three of them had finished making sure everyone was healed up after the battle they logged out and sat down to lunch. 


	7. The Guardian's Secret

.hackGODDESS  
by SmkViper  
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai  
  
Copyright  
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper  
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima  
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse  
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq

.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the  
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It  
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living  
or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 7: The Guardian's Secret  
  
"I apologize for being rude," said Subaru as she kneeled down to talk to Tsukasa in the cave where the Crimson Knights were holding him. "Because I don't have nearly enough power, I made you go through a terrible ordeal, and I'm very sorry. It's just…it's just I really wanted the chance to speak with you; but now that I have the chance, I honestly don't know where to begin."  
  
"It smells so…" began Tsukasa, looking up to Subaru. "Pleasant…"  
  
"You can sense it?" asked Subaru, confusion in her voice.  
  
"It's not just the smell, I feel it too," replied Tsukasa, gripping his knees tighter. "It's the pain…I can feel them."  
  
"Even though you're inside a game?"  
  
"I guess this is more then a game for me. Do you think I'm lying to you?"  
  
Subaru reached out to touch him, then hesitated. "No…that's…" she pulled her hand back. "Difficult…"  
  
Tsukasa looked back at her.  
  
"What are you…what are you planning to do now?" asked Subaru.  
  
"You're the one that determines that; am I right?" replied Tsukasa, a note of spite creeping into his voice. "Besides, I can't exactly get out of here anyway."  
  
"If you are not too reckless with your behavior, then we have no reason to detain you further."  
  
"Reckless?"  
  
"That strange monster that fights for you."  
  
"If you will all just leave me alone; if you will keep them from bothering me further; then I won't do anything," said Tsukasa.  
  
"You must promise me." A hint of urgency crept into Subaru's voice.  
  
"Same goes for you."  
  
"I promise, I'll do everything in my power. And…just one more thing…"  
  
"Please stop!" said Tsukasa, a little forcefully. "Don't ask me why. I really don't understand myself sometimes."  
  
"Sorry, I just…do you happen to know anything, anything at all, about the Key of the Twilight?"  
  
"Not at all, I've never heard of it."  
  
"Oh, I see," replied Subaru with a slight sigh.  
  
At that moment, footsteps echoed in the passageway behind them and Subaru turned around to see who was disobeying her order to leave them alone. The footsteps grew nearer and Sora walked into the light, his characteristic smirk on his face.  
  
"Who gave you permission to come in here!" commanded Subaru.  
  
"I did," replied Sora, "everyone outside should be frantically trying to reconnect about now."  
  
Subaru readied her ax. "Not acceptable!"  
  
Sora grinned, "Tsukasa, please; give him to me!"  
  
"Your request is denied."  
  
"Well I figured you would probably say that; but I'm taking him anyway," a threatening tone in his voice.  
  
Tsukasa stood up behind Subaru. "You did say I could leave now, didn't you?"  
  
"Yes…but…"  
  
"So, I'll leave with him."  
  
"That's good thinking," said Sora.  
  
"Listen to me!" insisted Subaru, "there are other ways to get out of this place. If you leave with him there will be nothing but trouble in the future."  
  
"Let's get out of here right now," interrupted Sora, "in any event, he's leaving here with me!"  
  
"I'm going now," said Tsukasa.  
  
"Tsukasa!"  
  
"Don't come after me…" he replied as he walked towards the exit.  
  
"You heard what he said, bye-bye!" said Sora as he took off after Tsukasa towards the exit.A few minutes later Skuld and Kenaz walked in as Subaru was thinking about what to do next.  
  
"Sorry to disturb you but when we didn't meet you outside we decided to come in. And there were no guards either," said Kenaz.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure the Crimson Knights are alright, they…had a bit of a problem with a player-killer."  
  
"Player-killer? So what happened to Tsukasa? Why isn't he here?" asked Skuld.  
  
"He…decided to leave with the player-killer."  
  
"But we wanted to talk to him for a few minutes."  
  
"I'm sorry, but he…he said he didn't want anyone bothering him anymore. He agreed to curb his actions if he was left alone. And of course I promised to do what I could to ensure that he would be left alone. Then Sora showed up and took Tsukasa with him. Tsukasa…he said not to follow him."  
  
"Sora! He's the player-killer you were talking about?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"Yeah, have you heard of him before?"  
  
"Yeah, I've heard of him. From the time he attacked Skuld, Urd, and Belldandy. They got the better of him if I remember correctly, though he is apparently a bit…repulsive."  
  
"That is definitely Sora. I'm sorry I could not convince Tsukasa to stay a little longer but it sounds like he really just wants to be left alone. I ask you to do so, and not bother him. I do not want any more trouble."  
  
"Alright," Skuld said with a disappointed sigh. "We'll try to find things out another way."  
  
"Thank you," replied Subaru, bowing slightly.  
  
"By the way, did you learn anything by talking to him? Besides wanting to be left alone that is," asked Kenaz.  
  
"He mentioned that he could smell, and feel the world. That he could feel pain, even though this is only a game."  
  
"That's odd, there is no way the game could transmit feeling or smells," said Skuld, puzzled.  
  
"You are correct, now if you will excuse me, I need to go find the Crimson Knights and remove the wanted notice for Tsukasa. Hopefully now that we are going to leave him alone, the problems will abate," said Subaru as she got up to leave.  
  
"Alright, we've got to come up with some other lead to pursue. We'll talk to you later," replied Kenaz.  
  
Subaru walked back towards the entrance as Skuld and Kenaz logged out of the game.In the temple, Skuld and Kenaz pulled off their headsets and started discussing alternatives.  
  
"Well, if we can't go after Tsukasa any more, then we're going to have to find something else related to these events. Can you think of anything off the top of your head?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Hmm…wait, what about that monster that was supposedly following Tsukasa around? If Tsukasa was captured then that monster may still be out there, and maybe we can track it using the program we developed to find out what created it."  
  
"Good idea, let's check the boards and see if anyone else has seen it wandering around."  
  
They opened up their web browser and loaded The World's bulletin boards. After a few minutes of searching they found a few posts that mentioned a strange, overpowering monster that appeared in a few areas that matched the description they had for Tsukasa's monster.  
  
"Hmm…that's odd…" remarked Skuld.  
  
"What is?"  
  
"These monster sightings, they are very close together. First the monster was sighted in one area; then it was sighted again on a completely different server, just seconds later."  
  
"Maybe it can move between servers and areas without physically moving?"  
  
"No…I don't think that's it. See? Some of the sighting times overlap. There must be more then one out there."  
  
"I'm not sure if that is good because we have a higher chance of meeting one, or bad because we may encounter more then we can handle. These posts do say that anyone that's stood up to the monsters has gotten hurt quickly. Though no character has died yet from encountering it, they all ran away before it could kill them," said Kenaz, a slight amount of nervousness in his voice.  
  
"Well, there is really only one way to find out. Let's check out the places where this monster was last sighted. And bring along the tracer, hopefully we can get close enough to plant it."  
  
"Alright…hey, we should bring Belldandy along; she would be able to heal us if we get in over our heads."  
  
"Good idea, I'll go ask her," replied Skuld as she got up to go talk to her older sister.  
  
Meanwhile, Kenaz got to work to modify the tracer program to work on the monster and gather as much data as it could regarding the monster's programming.  
  
A few minutes later, Skuld and Belldandy walked back into the room and sat down.  
  
"What are you working on?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Just making a few tweaks to the tracer so we can get some more data from the monster. Just give me a few…done. I'm ready to go, are you guys?"  
  
"Yes, let's go take a look," replied Skuld as they logged back into the game.The town of Mac Anu materialized around the three adventurers as they logged in. Kenaz looked down and made sure the tracer was in his inventory before they all set off towards the rotating chaos gate. Skuld selected the first set of words on their list and they warped off to the field.  
  
After finding nothing on the first field, they searched the second, and third. Finally they found a monster fitting the description on the fourth field on their list. It looked like a giant, golden dumbbell with a thick ring embedded in a smaller sphere in the middle of the bar between the two main spheres.  
  
"Ok, is everyone ready? Skuld, here's the tracer. Since you're a twin blade, and therefore the fastest, you try to put it on the monster. I'll try to distract it and Belldandy, you can try to keep us healed!" ordered Kenaz.  
  
"Roger!" Belldandy and Skuld replied.  
  
Kenaz tossed the small tracer to Skuld and Belldandy dropped back out of range and kept one eye on the monster and another on Skuld and Kenaz's health bars on her screen. Kenaz suddenly pulled out his Katana and charged the monster, letting out a loud yell to get its attention as Skuld cautiously snuck around to what she assumed was the back of the monster. The monster rotated to face Kenaz and its golden surface started to ripple slightly as it assessed this new threat. Suddenly, Kenaz leaped upwards with his blade held close to his side, and swiped at the side of the monster while he passed it. He quickly looked back and saw the gash that his sword had made in the side of the monster flow back together and heal itself.  
  
His reading of the monster's HP was all garbled, but showed no change; in fact, aside from turning to face Kenaz, the monster did not appear to react at all.  
  
Kenaz's eyes widened slightly at realizing that he did little, if any, damage to the monster, but he quickly recovered and charged it again. This time, the monster's rippling surface shot out a thin strand towards Kenaz, intent of spearing the boy though the chest. Kenaz saw the attack coming a little too late and almost dodged out of the way, the thread grazing his upper arm as it went by. A hot, searing pain shot up his arm as he dropped to his knees, his hit points half gone. Belldandy quickly cast a healing spell to replenish his lost HP, but his arm still throbbed.  
  
Damn it, I can't hurt it and for some reason I feel pain when he hits me! How am I supposed to fight a monster like this?  
  
Kenaz slowly crawled to his feet.  
  
"Kenaz!" yelled Skuld.  
  
Kenaz looked up just in time to see a second strand forming on the monster's surface and he instinctively rolled to the side; the monster's second attack striking the ground where he had been standing.  
  
It then turned slightly at Skuld's shout.  
  
"Come back here! Your fight is with me!" yelled Kenaz as he charged it yet again.  
  
The monster attacked a third time, but Kenaz saw it coming and sidestepped out of the way before delivering another blow to the monster. Unfortunately this wound healed up almost immediately like the first one. Still undaunted, he quickly slashed upwards as he was standing underneath the monster, dealing yet another wound, before jumping back out of range. Kenaz quickly stole a glance towards Skuld and saw her nod in his direction, indicating she was ready to plant the tracer.  
  
After Skuld places the tracer we should leave said Belldandy mentally. We can't fight this monster right now, it's too powerful and I can't keep you two alive if it is going to hit that hard  
  
Skuld and Kenaz both acknowledged her mentally and then Kenaz charged it again from the front while Skuld jumped towards its back, intent on planting the tracer as soon as possible.  
  
She had just about reached it when she noticed a sudden rippling of the monster's surface on the side facing her.  
  
"Skuld, look out!" yelled Belldandy, desperation in her voice.  
  
Skuld's eyes widened as she watched the strand shoot out towards her chest in slow motion. She was too far committed to dodge it and could only hope that it missed, but at this close range it was unlikely. Skuld tossed the tracer towards the monster in desperation and saw it hit the monster's side and attach itself just before the strand reached her and ripped through her chest. It was just a game and the loss of her character would be no big deal. Or so she tried to tell herself as the strand tore through her armor, skin, body, and out the other side. Her eyes went glassy as intense pain blossomed in her chest. She thought she could her someone screaming, and realized that it was herself before falling mercifully unconscious underneath the floating monster.  
  
"SKULD!" yelled Belldandy and Kenaz. Belldandy stumbled slightly.  
  
Kenaz, being closer, ducked and rolled under the monster, grabbing Skuld's limp body as he passed and ran as fast as he could from the monster, Belldandy following him closely. Once they were far enough away, they both teleported back to Mac Anu, Kenaz still carrying Skuld's body.Once back in the safety of the town, Kenaz laid Skuld down on the ground and looked around.  
  
"Belldandy, I don't see Skuld's ghost anywhere! She should have a ghost walking around so we can resurrect her character, not a dead body! What's going on?!"  
  
"I…I don't know Kenaz. I felt a sharp pain from her, and then she fell unconscious. We need to check on her in the real world!"  
  
Kenaz and Belldandy quickly logged out and saw Skuld lying on her back on the floor, headset still on her head, and her breathing erratic. They quickly removed her headset and saw that her eyes were open and empty.  
  
"Skuld! Answer me! Skuld!" yelled Kenaz desperately.  
  
Urd and Keiichi quickly came running into the room.  
  
"We heard a scream and I felt pain from Skuld…" Urd began before noticing her little sister lying on the floor. "Oh, no…" she mumbled to herself before running back towards her room to grab a potion from her collection.  
  
Keiichi took one glance at Skuld on the floor and had a confused and worried look on his face before Belldandy told him to go take care of Shinobu for a bit so she wouldn't be worried. He quickly pulled Shinobu out of the room and quieted her questions about Skuld, saying that she would be alright.  
  
Urd then came back into the room with a vial of red potion. She quickly knelt down next to Skuld and poured a little into her mouth before sitting back and waiting to see the result, a very worried look on her face.  
  
Skuld suddenly coughed a few times and blinked her eyes before attempting to sit up. Belldandy forced her back down again.  
  
"You need to rest for a bit," insisted Belldandy. "I'll carry you to your room."  
  
Skuld decided not to protest and closed her eyes before immediately falling back asleep. Belldandy then carried her back to her room while Urd grilled Kenaz on what happened.  
  
"I…I'm not sure Urd. We were looking for the monster that was following Tsukasa around, and after reading some of the messages on the board, we found that there may be more then one. We then went out looking for one to see if we could plant a tracer on it so we could learn about it. I was…I was supposed to distract it while Skuld planted the tracer, but it noticed her…and then…" Kenaz looked down at his feet, obviously trying to hold back tears, "it attacked her, and killed her character."  
  
Urd looked thoughtful for a moment and then noticed a red stain on Kenaz's upper arm. "What's that? Let me see your arm," said Urd, holding her hand out.  
  
"Huh?" Kenaz looked at his arm and noticed the red stain on his shirt sleeve. He lifted the sleeve up and hissed slightly as pain shot up his arm. A rather deep cut there was still bleeding a little.  
  
Urd's eyes widened a bit at the sight of the wound. "Hold on a sec, I have some bandages and medicine I can use on that." She left back to her room to get the materials.  
  
How did that…oh wait, don't tell me that's from when the monster grazed my arm! But that's impossible! Gods can't get hurt by something like that, especially if it isn't real… Kenaz thought to himself.  
  
Urd came back with the bandages and quickly applied some sort of medication to the wound before wrapping it up.  
  
"Care to tell me how that happened?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know. It's in the same place where the monster grazed my arm in game, but it shouldn't be able to hurt me in the real world."  
  
Urd looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know. If you were able to place the tracer it might tell us something about the monster."  
  
"Oh, right! I think Skuld was able to plant it before…before she got hurt." Kenaz looked sad for a minute. "I'm going to go check on her, the tracer can wait," he said before heading towards Skuld's room, passing Belldandy, who was just coming out. She motioned for him to be quiet, as Skuld was sleeping.  
  
"So, what's up with Skuld?" asked Urd, once she and Belldandy were far enough from Skuld's door to not be heard by either occupant.  
  
"She's sleeping soundly. I took a bit of time and checked her data and somehow it got corrupted slightly while we were playing," replied Belldandy, worry evident in her face and voice.  
  
"But that's not supposed to happen! Yggdrasil is supposed to be completely secure and no one should be able to modify a goddesses' data."  
  
"Something did, fortunately whatever you gave her worked and she should be fine in a day or so."  
  
"It was just a small repair program. I had to give a topical version of it to Kenaz too. Seems that he was also hurt from that battle, though I didn't think to double-check his data with Yggdrasil."  
  
"That must have been from when the monster grazed his arm."  
  
"That's what he said. Hopefully that tracer Skuld placed will be able to tell us more."  
  
"Yes, hopefully. I'm going to go tell Keiichi what's up and I guess I'll have to tell Shinobu that Skuld will be sick for a bit, so she needs to be quiet. I'll see you in the morning Urd, goodnight."  
  
"Goodnight, sister."Kenaz quietly entered Skuld's darkened room and saw Skuld peacefully sleeping on her bed. He brushed a stray strand of her raven-black hair from her face and pulled up a chair so he could be with her.  
  
"I'm sorry Skuld. Sorry I couldn't protect you, sorry I made you do that dangerous task. Maybe if I would have been faster, or done more damage to the monster he wouldn't have noticed you. Maybe you'd still be alright."  
  
Kenaz hid his face in his hands, tears creeping out from under them as he quietly cried himself to sleep next to her bed.  
  
Belldandy poked her head in a few minutes later and saw Kenaz asleep in a rather uncomfortable position on the chair. She smiled slightly and laid him down gently on the floor, covering him with a blanket before leaving the room quietly.  
  
Early the next morning, Skuld opened her eyes to the small amount of light that had managed to sneak its way in through the blinds on her window. She still had a headache and was feeling a bit week, but it was quite a bit better then the pain she had felt last night. She then turned her head and noticed Kenaz sound asleep on the floor next to her bed, his soft snoring and slightly red eyes bringing a slight smile to her face before she turned over and fell back asleep.  
  
Kenaz woke up an hour or so later and noticed he was in a much more comfortable position then he should have been considering how he had fallen asleep last night. He quietly sat up and left the room to grab his handheld computer so he could look at some of the monster's data. After retrieving the peripheral he quietly snuck back into Skuld's room and began going over the data that the tracer had collected.  
  
The results were rather confusing. Apparently once he had been hit by the monster a burst of what appeared to be static jumped over the computer and corrupted a part of the system before being partitioned off by the new anti-virus program that Skuld had installed a few days ago. There was a much more severe corruption when the monster had hit Skuld which the anti-virus program had almost failed to contain. Apparently some of the corruption also got into Yggdrasil before becoming contained up there. He was surprised he had not heard from Peorth about that, she being the current system administrator. Also confusing was the fact that the tracer seemed to have recorded almost no data before being destroyed. After careful analysis of the corrupted data he noticed that it seemed to match the signature of the virus that they were supposed to be investigating in The World. His slight gasp at finding this data woke Skuld from her light sleep.  
  
"Good morning," she said.  
  
"Huh? Oh, good morning, I'm sorry if I woke you up, how are you feeling?"  
  
"Much better thanks. What are you looking at?"  
  
"Some of the data that we gathered from the monster yesterday. Apparently it is at least one source of the virus we're investigating, though I can't find out much else. The tracer was destroyed shortly after you attached it."  
  
"I knew I should have coded it instead of you, it probably wouldn't have broken then, since my inventions always work perfectly," Skuld replied with a grin.  
  
"Hey, you did help code it, remember?" said Kenaz, looking a little hurt.  
  
Skuld giggled a bit before a look of pain came over her face.  
  
"Don't…don't make me laugh like that, it hurts!" she said with a forced smile. "What happened to me?"  
  
"I'm sorry, I don't know. Urd was the one who treated you, but it looks like from the computer records that some of your data got corrupted when you were hit, and that's what's causing your problems."  
  
"But that's not supposed to be possible!" Skuld replied, a worried look on her face.  
  
"Don't worry about it, you need to get some rest and recover. We can look it over together once you're feeling better, ok?"  
  
"Alright. Oh, and Kenaz?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks for watching over me last night."  
  
"Um…you're welcome," he replied, a blush spreading over his face.  
  
Skuld smiled before rolling over and falling back asleep. Kenaz continued to analyze the data on his handheld, frowning here and there when he came across something odd.  
  
We're close, really close. If I can just trace this virus we might be able to find out who's making it and stop it for goodMeanwhile, in a dark and rainy field on The World, a lone female heavy blade battles a monster. The battle is over quickly with the defeat of the monster and the player kneels down next to her defeated foe. After a few moments she stands up and gates out, but a flash of lightning quickly reveals a smirk…and red tattoos on her face and body. After the glow of the teleport rings fades, the carcass of the monster twitches, glows green, and stands up again, roaring it's challenge to anyone who dares to take it on. 


	8. Motorcycles and Revelations

.hackGODDESS by SmkViper Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai  
  
Copyright .hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq  
  
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  
  
Author's notes:  
Text in are a character's thoughts.  
  
Chapter 8: Motorcycles and Revelations  
  
Keiichi quietly poked his head into Skuld's room where Skuld was resting and Kenaz was silently working on analyzing the virus.  
  
"Kenaz, can I talk to you for a second?" Keiichi whispered.  
  
Kenaz looked up from his work, and with a glance towards Skuld's sleeping form, followed Keiichi out of the room. Once they were far enough away so as not to wake Skuld, Keiichi turned around and addressed Kenaz.  
  
"Have you ever worked on a motorcycle before Kenaz?"  
  
"Well, I haven't worked on something like that before, no. But I have helped Skuld out with her inventions so I've done mechanical stuff. My specialty is computers though, why do you ask?"  
  
"Well, Tamiya and Ootaki, two of my seniors from Nekomi Tech, called me up yesterday and dragged me into an exhibition race for the Nekomi Tech Motor Club on Friday, the day after tomorrow. Of course, I have to build the bike myself, and they just dropped off the parts for it a few minutes ago. Normally I would have asked Skuld if she would help me with it, but seeing as she needs her rest, well…"  
  
"Oh, so I'm second best, huh?" Kenaz replied with a smirk.  
  
"N-no, I didn't mean it like that," said Keiichi quickly, waving his hands in front of him.  
  
Kenaz chuckled. "I know, I not sure how much help I can be, but sure, I'll help you."  
  
"Thank you so much," said Keiichi with a little bow.  
  
"So, when do we get started?"  
  
"As soon as possible, like I said, the race is Friday afternoon, so we only have the rest of today and all of Thursday to work on the bike. I've built a bike before in less time, but I prefer to take a little more time to make sure I get it done right, and to have plenty of time to make sure it runs well."  
  
"Sure, let's go get started," said Kenaz, quickly changing his clothes to a pair of jeans and a work shirt as he and Keiichi walked towards the front yard, where the parts were scattered around.  
  
Kenaz took one look at the mess on the front lawn then turned towards Keiichi. "This," he said, gesturing towards the assortment of metal and plastic scattered in a heap, "is a racing bike?"  
  
"Well, sort of. We aren't building the bike for speed necessarily. It's for climbing steep hills. In this race, the racer needs to get as far as they can up a very steep, dirt hill by driving straight up the side of the hill. The bike is designed with a long rear swing arm and knobby tires to help it grip the ground, but it still takes a lot of skill on the part of the driver. The person who gets the highest in the shortest amount of time is the winner."  
  
"Sounds like an interesting race," replied Kenaz, looking back to the pile of parts and trying to imagine how they created the bike described.  
  
"Here are the plans they gave me for the bike," said Keiichi, handing Kenaz a few large sheets of paper.  
  
"Well, these look alright, but let me do some calculations just to make sure." Kenaz sat down on the ground and started putting the numbers into his handheld computer and running simulations. A few minutes later he looked up with a puzzled expression on his face.  
  
"What the heck were your seniors thinking? These calculations look alright at first glance, but if you run them through a simulation they are completely off, and the bike would fall apart quickly."  
  
"Well, plans and calculations were never their strong suit. That's why I always have Skuld take a look at them before I trust anything they give me. She always finds a bunch of problems with them and usually ends up just re-writing the plans from scratch."  
  
"Heh, that sounds like her alright," replied Kenaz with a slight smile. "Give me a few minutes and I'll have some new plans for you."  
  
"Alright, I'm going to start sorting these parts out," said Keiichi as he walked over to the hill of plastic and metal that was lying in the yard. "Geeze, you'd think they could come up with a better way to deliver these parts aside from piling them in the back of that mini-pickup they have and dumping them on my lawn," muttered Keiichi under his breath as he started sorting them out and making a few piles.  
  
After getting the majority of the parts sorted out, Kenaz came up behind Keiichi and handed him the new plans he had drawn up. "Here you go, what do you think?"  
  
Keiichi took a few seconds to study the plans and replied, "They look good, and with these we should be able to start construction right away. Here, hand me the frame and let's start putting this thing together."  
  
Kenaz picked up the metal frame and set it down on the ground in front of Keiichi and they both started working on assembling the bike.  
  
An hour or so later Belldandy came out to them with a tray of food for lunch.  
  
"Here you go," she said as she set the food down on the porch.  
  
"Thanks a lot Bell," said Keiichi as he walked over and sat down on the porch, giving his wife a quick kiss.  
  
"Yes, thank you Belldandy," replied Kenaz as he quickly walked over and joined Keiichi and Belldandy on the porch.  
  
"Here, you are both a mess," said Belldandy as she handed them both some towels to wipe their hands and faces on.  
  
"Hey guys," said a sultry voice from behind them. "You forgot the most important part of the meal." They looked back to see Urd standing in the doorway, holding a bottle of sake in one hand.  
  
"Only you would think of having sake for lunch, Urd. Can't you at least wait til dinner?" replied Kenaz, a slight frown on his face.  
  
"But the day is still young, plenty of time to have fun! Here, loosen up a bit!" Urd held the bottle out to him.  
  
Kenaz backed away slightly. "No thank you, you are quite welcome to have it all to your self." Urd laughed and walked back into the temple.  
  
"Mommy! Daddy! Lookit!" yelled Shinobu as she came running out of the temple. "Ooh! Lunch, can I have some Mommy?"  
  
"Of course you can, Shinobu," replied Belldandy, "but remember what I told you about running inside the house?"  
  
"Yes mommy, I'm sorry," Shinobu said with a slight pout.  
  
"It's okay Shinobu, what did you want to show us?" asked Keiichi.  
  
"Oh yeah!" said Shinobu, pulling something out of her pocket. "See?"  
  
Keiichi took the piece of paper that Shinobu held up. "What is it?" he asked, looking at the crayon drawing.  
  
"It's mommy, and daddy, and me, and auntie Skuld and auntie Urd, and Kenaz," replied Shinobu pointing out each person in turn.  
  
On the paper were five stick figures. The one on the far left had spiky black hair, the one next to him, holding his hand was one with long blonde hair and blue marks on her face. Holding onto her hand was a short little stick figure with black hair and a single blue mark on her face. Next to her was a girl with long black hair and blue marks as well, but holding some sort of circular object with lines coming out of it. Then there was another girl with white hair and blue marks, but holding some sort of bottle. And finally, on the far right was a guy with long brown hair and blue markings.  
  
"Oh yeah, I see it now. Very good job Shinobu. Here Bell, take a look," said Keiichi, handing Belldandy the sheet of paper.  
  
"Yes, very good job Shinobu," Belldandy, said with a smile at how the various people were drawn.  
  
Shinobu beamed at the compliments and then went back to eating her sandwich.  
  
After lunch was over Keiichi and Kenaz went back to working on the bike while Belldandy carried the tray inside.  
  
"Daddy, can I help you?" asked Shinobu.  
  
"Of course you can, do you want to race just like me someday?"  
  
"Yeah! I want to race really fast!" Shinobu said, jumping up and down excitedly.  
  
"Well then, why don't you hand me one of those bolts in that box over there?"  
  
"Ok! This one?" she replied, giving a bolt to Keiichi.  
  
"Yes, thank you very much," he said, ruffling her hair.  
  
Shinobu giggled and watched Keiichi and Kenaz continue to assemble the bike while occasionally retrieving a bolt or small part for either of them when they needed it.  
  
The afternoon passed quickly as the three of them worked hard to assemble the bike. Belldandy brought dinner outside that evening and they all ate together on the porch. Skuld was feeling better, but was still not quite up for working, so she sat on the porch after dinner and tried to come up with various ways to improve the bike's performance while Keiichi and Kenaz worked on the bike. Shinobu went inside to help Belldandy with the dishes and to watch her favorite TV show, which was some children's cartoon about racing. Keiichi and Kenaz finished assembling and mounting the engine to the frame that evening and then decided to call it a night, hoping to get plenty of rest so they could finish the bike on the following day.  
  
The sun rose bright and early the following morning, not a cloud in the sky. Skuld was feeling much better after a day of recuperation and joined Keiichi and Kenaz outside in assembling the bike. Shinobu watched on from the porch, every once in a while asking questions about what they were doing.  
  
"What's that do?" asked Shinobu, pointing towards a cable that Kenaz was holding.  
  
"That's a brake cable. It helps to slow the bike down," replied Kenaz.  
  
"Oh," Shinobu said, looking thoughtful. A few seconds later she asked, "How does it do that?"  
  
"Well, it connects to this piece here," Kenaz pointed to the brake lever on the handle bar, "and also to this piece next to the wheel." Kenaz indicated a metal device on the bottom of the fork. "When you pull the lever, the pads squeeze the wheel, and the bike slows down."  
  
"Oh," Shinobu was looking more puzzled.  
  
Kenaz smiled, "did you understand that?" Shinobu just smiled at him and kicked her feet that were dangling off the edge of the porch.  
  
"What's that do?"  
  
Kenaz sighed slightly while Keiichi grinned at him. It's going to be a long day… thought Kenaz to himself.  
  
Despite Shinobu's incessant questions, Skuld, Keiichi and Kenaz were able to complete the assembly of the bike shortly after lunch. Skuld, of course, insisted that she have some time with the bike to try out some new modifications she had thought up. While she was doing some calculations and tweaking the bike, Keiichi and Kenaz sat on the porch, sipping some tea that Belldandy had brought out to them.  
  
"Shinobu? Could you please go inside and play for a bit?" said Keiichi.  
  
"But I wanted to stay out here and help you!" Shinobu replied with a pout on her lips.  
  
"Shinobu!" called Belldandy from inside the temple. "Can you come help me with something?" she asked as she poked her head out the door.  
  
"Ok mommy," said Shinobu as she walked into the temple.  
  
"Thanks Bell," Keiichi said.  
  
Belldandy gave him a little wink and a smile as she stepped back inside and shut the door.  
  
"So Kenaz," Keiichi said as he watched Skuld tinker with some small part of the engine after Shinobu and Belldandy had gone back inside, "I didn't get a chance to ask you this yesterday while we were working, but what do you think of Skuld?"  
  
Kenaz seemed to choke on the tea he was currently drinking and was thrown into a coughing fit. "Wh-what do you mean?" he managed to gasp out between coughs.  
  
Keiichi smiled. "I think you know what I mean." He glanced at Kenaz, whose face had gone slightly red, before going back to watch Skuld at work. "Belldandy mentioned how you stayed next to Skuld after she… well, after she got hurt the day before yesterday. And I think Urd mentioned something about a date tomorrow evening that you had with Skuld?"  
  
Kenaz's face got redder at the mention of the date Friday night. "Well, um… we just… ah, are going to grab something to eat together; and maybe something else afterwards. Nothing special really."  
  
Keiichi smiled at his words. "Kenaz, when you were up in the heavens, before you came down here, did you ever hear anything about what was going on around here on earth?"  
  
"Well, aside from hearing that first Belldandy, then Urd, and then Skuld getting sent down here, or coming down here, not really. And there were rumors, like about the Lord of Terror, destruction of the Earth and so on. I even heard that Belldandy broke her seal without permission, and Kami-sama allowed it after the fact, considering the circumstances. I don't know how much of it is true of course..."  
  
"Well, it sounds like most of what you've heard is true, but there is one thing that I don't think you have heard about. I don't think anyone in heaven knows about it actually, except, of course, for Kami-sama. A few years ago, Skuld liked a human named Sentaro. They were good friends, and would often go on bicycle rides together around the city. I'm pretty sure they liked each other, but I was rather caught up with Belldandy at the time." Keiichi blushed slightly at the memory. "Even though Skuld liked Sentaro, she never told him that she was a goddess. She probably meant to tell him at some point, or the topic never came up, I don't know; but the point was, he never knew."  
  
"You're talking like he's dead or something, Keiichi."  
  
"He is."  
  
Kenaz's face looked shocked, then saddened. "What happened?"  
  
"Well, Sentaro was out late one night on his bike, he must have been in quite a hurry, and it was raining out. He was crossing a street when a car hit him, he probably didn't even see it coming. He was rushed to the hospital immediately, and Skuld teleported there as soon as she heard; there were plenty of puddles for her to teleport around in since it was raining. The rest of us arrived at the hospital a few minutes later by motorcycle. When we finally got to Sentaro's room, he was lying in the bed all bandaged up and in a coma. His parents and Skuld were in the room, Skuld was sitting in a chair next to his bed, crying silently. When visiting hours were over, only family members could stay, so we had to leave. Belldandy had to put Skuld to sleep and carry her out because she didn't want to leave. The following morning, we found out that he had died just after midnight." Keiichi looked down at his hands sadly before continuing.  
  
"Skuld was completely devastated. She would rarely come out of her room and ate little. The funeral was held the following week and we all went, of course. At the funeral, Sentaro's parents handed Skuld a small velvet box and a slip of paper. After reading whatever was on that sheet, she immediately broke down. After that it was if she didn't want to live anymore. She would just lie on her bed staring at the ceiling. We couldn't get her to eat at all. Somehow, Belldandy got her to finally get a hold of herself a few days later and she gradually recovered. She keeps whatever Sentaro's parents gave her in her room somewhere. I've never seen them, but I can guess what was going on. I think Sentaro planned to ask Skuld to marry him that night, which was why he was in such a hurry."  
  
"But couldn't Skuld go up to heaven and see him again?"  
  
"I suppose so; you would know better then I would, being the god and all. But she never did. Maybe it was because he never knew that she was a goddess, and she's worried what he may think of her holding that secret from him for so long. But I do know one thing. For the past two years, Skuld has almost been back to normal, but there was sadness in her eyes and sometimes I could see them mist up when she thought no one was looking. But since you came, it's like we have the old Skuld back. She's finally started to genuinely smile again, especially since the weekend we spent at the beach. I'm pretty sure she likes you Kenaz, and I don't want to see her hurting again, so as her older brother-in-law I want to know what you think of her."  
  
Kenaz looked down at his feet. "I… I don't know for sure. I mean, I like Skuld as a friend and all, a very good friend. I always admired her work at school and being punished to stay down here on earth hasn't seemed nearly so bad now that we've been talking and working on trying to solve this mystery together. But I really don't know Keiichi."  
  
Keiichi smiled at Kenaz, who was looking a little worried. "That's alright," Keiichi returned to watching Skuld again, who was still messing around with the bike, completely oblivious to the conversation they were having. He chuckled a bit, "I guess it is a bit early to ask the question after all. So what do you plan on doing?" Kenaz got a small smirk on his face.  
  
"Well, I guess we'll just keep doing things together, starting with tomorrow night."  
  
"No," corrected Keiichi with a smirk on his face, "starting today."  
  
"Huh?" Kenaz looked puzzled.  
  
"I think I've done enough work on the bike, why don't you and Skuld put the bike through its paces and do some tweaking for me. I've got to stay rested for the race tomorrow," said Keiichi with a wink.  
  
"But I don't know how to drive that… thing!" insisted Kenaz.  
  
Keiichi waved Kenaz off, "Don't worry, I'm sure Skuld will be more then happy to help you out. I'll see you two at dinner, don't disappoint me!" Keiichi then disappeared into the house.  
  
"Hey Keiichi, could you…" Skuld said as she looked up from her work. "Oh, where did he go Kenaz?"  
  
"He, um, said he had to rest up for the race tomorrow and we should finish tuning and testing the bike."  
  
"Oh," replied Skuld, looking a bit puzzled. That's odd, Keiichi never had to rest before a race. He would even sometimes stay up really late the night before finishing a bike. Maybe he's feeling sick? Skuld thought to herself. "Ok, then could you come over here for a minute. I need a hand holding these two parts together while I make some adjustments."  
  
"Alright," Kenaz replied as he headed over to the bike to give Skuld a hand.  
  
"So you told him about Sentaro?" asked Belldandy as she looked out the window at Skuld and Kenaz working together on finishing up the bike.  
  
"Yeah. I thought he needed to know since he and Skuld are starting to spend more time with each other," replied Keiichi. "You think it was the wrong thing to do?"  
  
"No, I think you were right to tell him. My little sister deserves to have someone to help her forget the past and move forward. Her domain is the future after all," Belldandy said with a slight smile.  
  
"I just really hope they work out together. Do you think he would work out for her?"  
  
"If I didn't I wouldn't let him near her," replied Belldandy with a twinkle in her eye. "Having Kenaz down here was probably the best thing that happened to her in the past two years. Father knew what he was doing when He sent Kenaz down here."  
  
Keiichi chuckled, "Well, He does have a reputation to maintain after all." The roar of an engine caused them both to look out the window and watch as Kenaz revved the motorcycle while Skuld monitored it with her equipment.  
  
"Well, I have to get started on dinner," said Belldandy as she headed to the kitchen.  
  
"But it's still the middle of the afternoon."  
  
"I know, but I have to also make our lunch for tomorrow since we're all going to be at the race, and I want to prepare something special for tonight since I don't think those two will be around for our victory party afterwards."  
  
Keiichi laughed, "Alright, then I'm going to head on over to Whirlwind and see if Chihiro needs any help before they close. I'll be back in time for dinner!"  
  
"Have a safe trip, K! Shinobu! Do you want to help me make dinner and lunch for tomorrow?"  
  
"Yeah!" yelled Shinobu as she came running down the hallway from her room. "Can I make the rice balls?"  
  
"Of course you can, now come on and wash your hands, we have work to do," said Belldandy as she and Shinobu walked into the kitchen.  
  
Skuld and Kenaz walked into the temple just before dinner time. Skuld had a smug look on her face while Kenaz looked rather damp.  
  
"Belldandy? Where do you keep the towels?" asked Kenaz.  
  
"In the closet just to the right of the bathroom. Why, what happened?" Belldandy said as she came walking out of the kitchen.  
  
"Well, after we finished on the bike Skuld and I started playing around and I splashed some water from the pond at her. I forgot her element was water… and she had Noble Scarlet to help her. Lightning's Edge and I didn't stand a chance." Skuld giggled a little as Kenaz told Belldandy what happened.  
  
"Lightning's Edge?" asked Belldandy. "Is that your angel?"  
  
"Yeah, I got him a few years ago, a year or two after you guys were already on Earth."  
  
"Do you mind if I see him?" Belldandy asked politely.  
  
"Not at all, Lightning's Edge, come forth!" Kenaz said as he raised his right arm as if drawing something out of the air.  
  
From Kenaz's back sprang two white wings, crackling with electricity. Then his angel burst forth in a flurry of feathers and sparks. Behind Kenaz now hovered his angel, Lightning's Edge. He had a toned upper body and his lower body disappeared into a swirl of white cloth that came out of Kenaz's back. His wings were large and white, with hints of gold in the feathers. He had short, spiky white hair, and his eyes were a deep shade of clear blue. His expression was flat and he seemed to be all business with his arms crossed over his chest. There was, however, a softness to his eyes that hinted at a gentler nature.  
  
"He's quite handsome, Kenaz," Belldandy said as she looked at him.  
  
Shinobu was standing next to Belldandy, her eyes wide. "He's pretty," she said, her voice quiet.  
  
Kenaz blushed slightly, "Thank you. Um…I'm going to go get dried out now." Lightning's Edge disappeared again into Kenaz's back as Kenaz walked down the hallway in search of a means of drying himself out from the dousing he had gotten from Skuld.  
  
"Do you think the bike is ready for the race tomorrow?" Belldandy asked Skuld.  
  
"Yup! It's going to be the fastest bike out there!" Skuld replied enthusiastically.  
  
"I'm home!" called Keiichi from the front door.  
  
"Welcome back!" said Belldandy, and Skuld.  
  
"Daddy!" called Shinobu as she ran to the front door towards Keiichi.  
  
"Hey! How's my little girl? What have you been up to while I was gone?" asked Keiichi as he swept Shinobu off the floor and put her on his shoulder.  
  
"I helped mommy make dinner! I made the rice balls for lunch all by myself too!" Shinobu replied with a big grin on her face.  
  
"Well, I can't wait to try them tomorrow then!" said Keiichi with a laugh.  
  
"Dinner is just about ready if you would all go sit down at the table," said Belldandy.  
  
"I'll help you bring the food out Bell," Keiichi said as he followed Belldandy into the kitchen with Shinobu still sitting on his shoulder.  
  
Dinner that evening was excellent and Belldandy had put extra effort into making it because of the big day tomorrow. After dinner, Skuld and Kenaz went outside and sat down on the porch, eating some ice cream together.  
  
"Kenaz, can I see your angel again?" asked Skuld.  
  
"Sure," replied Kenaz, calling out his angel again.  
  
"You know," said Skuld as she looked at Kenaz's angel, "he looks like you, only more handsome."  
  
"Hey!" Kenaz said, looking slightly hurt.  
Skuld giggled at his expression. "I'm just kidding you." Noble Scarlet then emerged from her back. "What do you think of mine?"  
  
"I think she's cute," said Kenaz.  
  
Nobel Scarlet blushed slightly at Kenaz's words, then looked over at Lightning's Edge and tried to get his attention. He was doing his best to ignore Nobel Scarlet but she was rather persistent, considering they couldn't speak. She finally got fed up and blasted him with some water. Lightning's Edge came out of it dripping wet and looking a little ticked off, but with a slight smirk on his face. He then conjured up a small lightning bolt and zapped Nobel Scarlet in the middle of the back and the fight was on. The two angels started chasing each other all around the front yard, gouts of water and bolts of lightning flying back and forth between the two. It looked more like a playful tussle between friends then an actual fight.  
  
Skuld and Kenaz watched the little spat going on between the two angels with smiles on their faces.  
  
"Looks like they get along just fine," said Skuld. I wonder if… she thought to herself, and then laid her head on Kenaz's shoulder.  
  
Kenaz tensed up at the sudden contact, then slowly relaxed, gingerly placing his arm across her back and his hand on her opposite shoulder. He was still slightly tense for a few moments and then his arm relaxed and he pulled Skuld a little closer as they watched their angels tussling around in the yard.  
  
Belldandy smiled from where she was watching them in the doorway and quietly shut the door as she went back inside, not wanting to interrupt their moment together.


	9. A Discovery, A Date, A Demon

.hackGODDESS by SmkViper Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai 

Copyright .hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.  
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq

.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd,  
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Author's notes:  
Text in > are a character's thoughts.

Chapter 9: A Discovery, A Date, A Demon

Tal sat in his office in Hell brooding over his next assignment. I'm a demon, 1st class. I shouldn't have to do something as menial as causing an "accident" with a life support system. Still, since Hild specifically passed this assignment to me, there must be something important about this person… "Well, guess I could start by researching this person in Hell's database." After a few quick keystrokes he had brought up the relevant information.

"Hmm… name is Miyuki Kamina… born and lives in Tokyo, Japan… 16 years old… oh this is interesting: admitted to a local hospital after being found unconscious next to her computer. She is stable, but is in a coma and on life support. Father has apparently discussed euthanasia with her doctor. I wonder if it has anything to do with Hild's latest 'project'?" "Getting a bit nosy are we dear?" said a sultry voice over his left shoulder.

Tal shot up in his chair and was only saved from falling by grabbing onto the lip of his desk before the chair could tip over.

"H-Hild! What are you doing here?" "Just checking up on a little demon who seems to be sticking his nose into places it doesn't belong…" "Well I hope you find him then…" replied Tal as he attempted to regain his composure.

Hild just grinned at him like a predator that just cornered its prey.

Tal sweated.

"Well thank you for the sentiment dear… I just want your little job done by the end of the day. Ta ta!" Hild called as she gave a little wave and left.

How the hell does she know when to come by… "I heard that Tal! And unless you get working again I think we'll be seeing a lot more of each other." Tal squeaked and immediately went back to work. He didn't think she'd be seeing him for social calls if that happened. After taking a few good minutes to calm down he began working out his plan for causing a "failure" in Ms. Kamina's life support equipment.

That night, a hobo got the shock of his life as someone seemed to literally jump out of the fire he had built to keep himself warm.Damn the human that invented the light bulb and got rid of torches and candles… thought Tal to himself after dusting himself off. He then spotted the disheveled man looking at him and shaking with fear. Tsh… looks like I can still cause a bit of fear in people… at least I'm not losing my touch> "What are you looking at? Get out of here before I make you regret it!" said Tal in a low, menacing voice. The man turned tail and fled.

"Now to find that house…" Tal muttered to himself as he studied the piece of parchment on which he had written some notes in an evil looking script that seemed to glow slightly red on the page. After studying them for a while he took off down the street. He quickly found the house that he was looking for and slipped inside. A few minutes later, a man looking identical to Takuya Kamina, Miyuki's father, stepped out of the house, an evil glint in his eye as he walked towards the hospital.

The nurse on duty though it was odd that Mr. Kamina was visiting so late at night. He usually only came by to talk to one of the doctors about his daughter's condition and never just to visit her. But since he was family she let him go in. "About time the man visited her, the poor thing," she said to herself.

Tal quietly slipped into the hospital room that Miyuki was staying in. Fooling the nurse had been too easy with the help of the spell that changed his appearance. Of course it would have been easier if it had been 300 years ago and he could have just teleported in through a torch on the wall or a candle sitting next to a bed. Modern times had definitely not made travel easy for him. But what did it matter? He was here and just had to sabotage the equipment, he was a demon 1st class after all. However even demons 1st class cannot be expected to know everything. It's not like Tal had learned about electronics, but he at least knew that unplugging the unit from the wall would probably work. So he did. In hindsight, this was probably not the best option he could have taken.As soon as he had pulled the plug out of the wall, the monitors by the girl's bedside gave out an annoyingly loud tone and he was about to quickly make his exit when a man threw open the door and saw Tal, still looking like Takuya Kamina, holding the plug to the life support machine.

"What are you doing!" the doctor yelled at the man as he rushed towards Tal and grappled with him, fighting for the plug. "Stop it! Calm down!" Tal decided the fleeing was the best option. He could not risk using his power in a visible way, so he simply pushed the doctor away, into one of the blaring machines and ran out of the room.

Damn it! How could that have gone any worse! Damn Hild and the stupid rules she created that prevent me from directly hurting them!

He was so wrapped up in cursing at himself that he didn't notice the goddess standing outside the hospital til he had slammed face first into her force field and fell, dazed, to the sidewalk.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" said a female voice as she walked closer to Tal. "A demon? In a hospital? What's the matter? Visiting an old friend? I think not." Tal shook his head so he could see again, but he wasn't feeling any better once he saw who was talking to him. She was tall, dressed in purple and white robes with a large single-bladed axe in her hand, the handle as long as she was tall. Three purple dots adorned her forehead in the shape of an upside-down triangle. Crap! A valkyrie!

"Go back to Hild and tell her that Miyuki is now under our protection. You are not welcome here," she said coldly, her face hard as ice.

Tal, knowing that he did not want to mess with a valkyrie, one of Heaven's elite soldiers, took off down the road, desperately looking for a fire where he could transport back to Hell. Once he got back to Hell though, he was not in a much better position.

"Tal dear, we need to talk about the meaning of the word 'subtlety'." Said Hild with her eyes smouldering.

Tal gulped. He knew he was going to see a lot more of Hild in the near future, and it wasn't going to be pretty…

The following morning Bear and BT met in a small grove of trees in a vacant field in The World."The time the patient fell, the circumstances, the place, it's more then enough corroborating evidence. I'm pretty sure I'm right. That patient is Tsukasa," said Bear."So, what about the big commotion at the hospital?" asked BT.

"They found him relatively quickly so the situation was never critical. He had limited use of his respiratory functions in the first place, so he was also lucky that the respirator was only being used in a support capacity."

"But still, wouldn't this be considered attempted murder?"

"In this case, I think it would be considered temporary insanity. The patient in question had numerous bumps and bruises on his body when he was first brought into the hospital," replied Bear

"That is so depressing," said BT with a sigh.

"That's for sure. The hospital itself is having difficulty because of this case as well. It's very serious," replied Bear.

Back in the real world things are just getting underway at the hill where the race is to take place.

"Morisato!" yelled a big booming voice as the owner of that voice, a big man himself, walked towards Keiichi who was doing a final inspection of the bike. With him was another tall man with spiky blond hair, which made him look taller then he really was, and also wearing sunglasses.

"Tamiya, Ootaki, how are you guys?" "We are ready for you to lead our club to victory bro!" said Ootaki in a less booming voice.

"But guys, you haven't been in the club for several years!" insisted Keiichi.

"We may not be members of the club but we can still inspire them with out gung-ho spirit and make sure future generations will carry on our legacy! Your performance today will inspire members of the club for years to come! Now go out there and do our club proud!" said Tamiya, his voice still exceptionally loud.  
Keiichi sweat-dropped and flashed a half-heated grin before turning back to the bike.

"Oh hello Tamiya, Ootaki. Would you like some tea?" asked Belldandy as she came up to them with a thermos and a few cups in hand.

"Thank you Miss Beldandy," replied Tamiya, a little more quietly this time as he and Ootaki accepted the offered beverage.

"Ootaki, is your wife here today?" asked Belldandy again.

"Satoko is up in the stands cheering us on," replied Ootaki, pointing to her.

"Thank you," replied Belldandy before heading towards Satoko to talk with her.

"Well," said Keiichi, looking up from the bike, "everything seems to be ready to go. Now we just have to wait our turn."

The races lasted all day with several bike riders failing to reach the top of the mountain. A few, including Keiichi, were able to reach the top however, but Keiichi beat them all out in the speed at which he did so. After the races were over, there was to be a party at the clubhouse on Nekomi Tech's campus, but Skuld and Kenaz had other plans. Before they took off however, Keiichi thanked them for a job well done on the bike.

"So Kenaz," said Skuld once they were walking alone, "what did you have in mind tonight?"

"Well, nothing fancy I guess. There was this new ramen place I wanted to check out for dinner, then we could hit 131 flavors for some ice cream, and finish up with a trip to the arcade. How does that sound?"

"Sounds fancy enough for me, but how about we skip the dinner and go right to the ice cream?" said Skuld with a mischievous grin on her face.

Kenaz laughed. "Belldandy wouldn't be too happy with me if I took her little sister out for nothing but ice cream!"

Skuld laughed with him. "No, I suppose she wouldn't. And anyway, Urd would probably give me a hard time about it too."

Dinner passed quickly as Skuld and Kenaz spent the time talking about the race, the bike, and what they could have done differently that might have made the bike run better. After they picked up their ice cream and were walking to the arcade their conversation drifted towards The World and what was going on there.

"You never told me what you found out about that guardian monster, and how my data got corrupted," said Skuld.

"Well, I'm still not completely sure what went on at that time. Unfortunately the tracer program was destroyed before it could send us any data." Skuld looked a bit downcast at the mention that one of her programs failed.

"However, what did help was you getting hit by the monster."

"Hey, I'm not going to go back in there and set myself up as a target just so you can get more data!" said Skuld indignantly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound like that," Kenaz replied with a sheepish grin. "Anyway, when the monster hit you, it somehow corrupted your data in Yggdrasil through your connection. Fortunately the anti-virus program was able to contain it, but not before it was able to hurt you. That's why you were sick."

"I still don't see how any program made by humans could even know how to use our connection to Yggdrasil, let alone access and corrupt data."

"That's what also had me worried. Unless…"

"Unless what?" asked Skuld.

"Nah, it's nothing," replied Kenaz dismissively.

"It's got to be something. Come on, out with it!"

"Alright, fine. What if the virus was not made by humans, but made by a demon? I've heard their computer system is similar to Yggdrasil, and demons are connected to it like we are connected to Yggdrasil. So they could possibly have the knowledge to make a virus like that."

"But why? They know that if they kill any god or goddess that they will lose one of their own because of the doublet system," stated Skuld, a puzzled look on her face.

"I know, that's what doesn't make sense. I can't see them risking the death of, say, Hild, just because their program hit the wrong person. Well, maybe looking more closely at what the virus did or left behind will help us with that question… oh, here we are," said Kenaz as they arrived at the arcade.

Skuld was like a kid in a toy store, which might be a more accurate description then she would have liked. She and Kenaz played several games with and against each other until it got late. On their way home however, Kenaz's cell phone rang.

"Hmm, wonder who that is?" asked Kenaz as he pulled out the phone to check the caller ID.

"Probably Urd, wanting to know if you've made your move yet," replied Skuld with an odd smile on her face.

Kenaz didn't recognize the phone number listed, so he let the call go to voice mail. "If it's anyone important, they'll leave a voice message," he said, putting the phone in his pocket again.

A few seconds later, it rang again, signaling that a new voice message was in his mailbox.

"Well I guess it was important," Kenaz said, dialing into his voice mail and listening to the message. As he listened his eyes grew larger and he scribbled something down on a piece of paper.

"What? What is it?" asked Skuld, a little worried.

"That was… that was someone who claimed to be Helba."

"Helba? The famous hacker?"

"The same. She said that she had something interesting for us and if we wanted to meet with her, to go to the address I wrote down in the next few minutes."

Skuld looked at the address, it was only a few minutes away by walking. Obviously Helba had not only found out Kenaz's phone number, but where they were when she called them, which was a little creepy.

"What do you think? Should we go and meet her?" asked Skuld, a little worried.

"I think so, she might have some important information for us," replied Kenaz. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can handle anything she might try."

A few minutes later they had arrived at the designated address, a technology store that was closed for the night. After they had arrived, the door to the store opened and a woman called them inside, turning on the store light. She led them to a back room and turned on the front store light so the store looked empty again.

"So, am I right in assuming you are Helba?" asked Kenaz.

"That is correct," replied the woman. "Normally I wouldn't show myself in person, but because of what is going on in The World, I felt the risk was necessary, and that I could trust you."

"Why do you think you can trust us?" asked Skuld.

"I have watched you play the game. Seen what you can do. No ordinary player has the abilities that you do, and you also seem to be investigating The World."

She must have seen us use our divine powers that one time when Sora attacked us!> thought Skuld to herself.

"I have some information that you might find useful," said Helba, "but of course, the information will not be free."

"I thought so, what do you want in return?" asked Kenaz.

"Simply your help and access to the information that you have that I do not possess. I may not look like it, but I am just as worried about the problems that The World is facing as you are, perhaps more," she replied with a slight grin.

"Alright, we agree. You give us your information first," said Kenaz.

Helba looked annoyed for a second before starting. "Well then, in order to give you what I know, I need to know how much you know about The World. For example, who made it, and why did he make it?"

"Well," replied Skuld, "I assume it was made by CC Corporation, since their name is the one on the game box. And I assume it was made to make money, like all computer games."

Helba sighed. "Looks like you have much to learn. So I will start from the beginning. The World was originally not a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was a small program called Fragment, developed by a man named Harold Hyuek. He wrote Fragment to be virtual world where he could develop a new breed of artificial intelligence. The AI that he developed he called Morghanna. After watching Morghanna develop in Fragment, he noticed some shortcomings in her programming, so he decided to make a new AI. Since a lot of the base programming for Morghanna would work for this new AI, he decided to slightly restructure Morghanna to make the AI for him, thereby saving him some work. At this time however, CC Corporation heard about his program and decided to offer to buy it from him. They didn't care about the AI, in fact, it's probable they didn't know the AI even existed. They just wanted the world that Harold had created. Harold refused, he did not want his creation turned into a video game, he felt that that would diminish what he was trying to di. This angered the CEO of CC Corporation. I do not know many other details other then that CC Corporation now owns Fragment, which they have re-made into The World, and Harold died shortly after he refused to sell Fragment to them."

"But that doesn't make much sense, why would they want Fragment so badly? Wasn't there any other software that CC Corporation could use?" asked Skuld.

"No, there wasn't. After the Pluto's Kiss incident, the only operating system was Altimit, developed by CC Corporation. And there were no online games at all, none even in development. Because Fragment was designed to use a network so that multiple computers could run it and develop the AI contained in it, it was an ideal base for what CC Corporation wanted to do. Harold has already developed everything they needed except for making the actual zones and allowing players to play in the world contained in Fragment. And, as always, it is cheaper to steal something then to develop it yourself. Anyway, CC Corporation took Fragment and developed it into The World, but there was one problem. There seemed to be no way to administer The World, as an autonomous program managed everything. This, of course, was Morghanna, but CC Corporation did not know this. Since they could not get rid of the program, they cut it off from the rest of the system and put in their own administrative system that could be managed by people. But Morghanna is still there in The World, probably still trying to create the new AI, which Harold called Aura."

"So what does all this have to do with what is going on in The World today?" asked Kenaz.

"It seems that Morghanna has been able to slightly break out of the shell that CC Corporation put her into. However I don't think she did this on her own. There seems to be someone helping her. As a result of her increasing influence, strange things have been happening, odd monsters are appearing, pieces of dungeons are getting corrupted, and now even a player named Tsubasa is unable to log out of the game. I fear that if Morghanna takes over the world, that her anger and being shut away from it by CC Corporation will manifest itself and she will lash out against the players. And from there she might even be able to get outside of The World. She seems to be acting much like a mother would act if her child was threatened. Though whether that child is Aura or not is up for debate. It would be Pluto's Kiss all over again."

"So basically, you're worried that this AI, Morghanna, will wreak havoc in The World, and possibly also in the real world by hacking its way out of CC Corporation's servers?" asked Skuld.

"Basically, yes," replied Helba.

"So what do you need us for? You seem to be doing just fine collecting data yourself," Skuld asked.

"There are still some areas I cannot get into in The World, and you seem to have done more research into who Tsukasa really is. I get the feeling that Tsukasa is a major part of this, and your abilities in The World might help me find out just what is really going on. Now, what have you found out?"

"Well, you know more then we do. All we really know at this point is that something is definitely wrong in The World, but it seems to be the result of a virus running around. The guardian monsters seem to be able to spread it around by attacking. We are also pretty sure that someone outside The World is the one who created the virus, not some AI in The World. Of course, we didn't know about the AI before," said Kenaz.

"Hmm… can you send me the information you have on the virus?" asked Helba.

"Sure, just e-mail me with instructions on how to contact you," said Skuld. "I assume you already have our e-mail addresses since you seem to have our phone numbers."

Helba gave a little grin, "yes, I can do that. Unless you have anything else to tell me, I have work to do."

"Alright, then we will be waiting for your e-mail. Thank you for your help," said Kenaz as they left the store.

"Well, what do you think? Do we trust her?" asked Kenaz.

"I don't know now, but I will tomorrow," said Skuld, a mischievous grin on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I took her picture, so we can run it through Yggdrasil and find out who she really is."

Kenaz did a double-take. "You have a camera? Where?" Skuld held her palm up, showing him the small camera she had hidden there.

"How long have you had that and what other pictures have you taken?" asked Kenaz.

Skuld grinned, "that's a secret!" She then ran off towards home.

"Hey! Come back here!" yelled Kenaz as he chased off after her.

Author's note: Hello faithful readers. I know I haven't done an author's note before, but I always felt that they kind of took away from the story, so I've avoided using them. The reason I am putting one in now is to let you know that this story will be on hiatus for a while. Due to the lack of readership and reviews, my motivation for continuing this fic has dropped. I will probably still continue to write, but this fic may not see more chapters for a while. I wanted to at least get this chapter out so that you can pretty much figure out most of what is going on in The World, though there are a few twists and turns I have planned for up ahead. Thank you again for reading and see you in other fics!


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